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From The Rapidan to Richmond 




WILLIAM MEADE DAME 



PRIVATE FIRST COMPANY OF RICHMOND HOWITZERS 

1864 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO 
RICHMOND 



AND 



THE SPOTTSYLVANIA 
CAMPAIGN 



A Sketch in Personal Narrative of the 
Scenes a Soldier Saw 



By 

WILLIAM MEADE DAME, D.D. 

Private, First Company 
Richmond Howitzers 



Baltimore 

Green-Lucas Company 

1920 



.JJ IS- 



FEB -9 1921 

g.CUGilOSS 



Copyright, 1920, by Harry B. Green 



To 

My Comrades of the Army 

OF Northern Virginia 




WILLIAM MEADE DAME, D. D. 

RECTOR MEMORIAL PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

BALTIMORE. MD. 

1920 



INTRODUCTION 

By 

Thomas Nelson Page 

"The land where I was born" was, in my childhood, a great 
battleground. War — as we then thought the vastest of all 
wars, not only that had been, but that could ever be — swept over 
it. I never knew in those days a man who had not been in 
the war. So, "The War" was the main subject in every dis- 
cussion and it was discussed with wonderful acumen. Later it 
took on a different relation to the new life that sprung up and 
it bore its part in every gathering much as the stories of Troy 
might have done in the land where Homer sang. To survive, 
however, in these reunions as a narrator one had to be a real 
contributor to the knowledge of his hearers. And the first 
requisite was that he should have been an actor in the scenes 
he depicted ; secondly, that he should know how to depict them. 
Nothing less served. His hearers themselves all had experience 
and demanded at least not less than their own. As the time 
grew more distant they demanded that it should be preserved in 
more definite form and the details of the life grew more 
precious. 

Among those whom I knew in those days as a delightful 
narrator of experiences and observations — not of strategy nor 
even of tactics in battle; but of the life in the midst of the 
battles in the momentous campaign in which the war was 
eventually fought out, was a kinsman of mine — the author of 
this book. A delightful raconteur because he had seen and felt 
himself what he related, he told his story without conscious art, 



XU INTRODUCTION 

but with that best kind of art: simplicity. Also with perennial 
freshness; because he told it from his journals written on the 
spot. 

Thus, it came about that I promised that when he should 
be ready to publish his reminiscences I would write the intro- 
duction for them. My introduction is for a story told from 
journals and reminiscent of a time in the fierce Sixties when, 
if passion had free rein, the virtues were strengthened by that 
strife to contribute so greatly a half century later to rescue the 
world and make it "safe for Democracy." 

It was the war — our Civil War — that over a half century 
later brought ten million of the American youth to enroll them- 
selves in one day to fight for America. It was the work in 
"the Wilderness" and in those long campaigns, on both sides, 
which gave fibre to clear the Belleau Wood. It was the spirit 
of the armies of Lee and Grant which enabled Pershing's army 
to sweep through the Argonne. 

Rome, March 27, 1919. 



WOLSELEY'S TRIBUTE TO LEE 

The following tribute to Robert E. Lee was writ- 
ten by Lord JFolseley when commander-in-chief of the 
armies of Great Britain, an office which he held until 
succeeded by Lord Roberts. 

Lord Wolseley had visited General Lee at his 
headquarters during the progress of the great Ameri- 
can conflict. Some time thereafter Wolseley wrote: 

"The fierce light which beats upon the throne is 
as a rushhght in comparison with the electric glare 
which our newspapers now focus upon the public man 
in Lee's position. His character has been subjected 
to that ordeal, and who can point to a spot upon it? 
His clear, sound judgment, personal courage, untiring 
activity, genius for war, absolute devotion to his State, 
mark him out as a public man, as a patriot to be for- 
ever remembered by all Americans, His amiability 
of disposition, deep sympathy with those in pain or 
sorrow, his love for children, nice sense of personal 
honor and generous courtesy, endeared him to all his 
friends. I shall never forget his sweet, winning smile, 
nor his clean, honest eyes that seemed to look into your 
heart while they searched your brain. I have met 
with many of the great men of my time, but Lee alone 
impressed me with the feeling that I was in the pres- 
ence of a man who was cast in a grander mold and 



XIV WOLSELEY S TRIBUTE TO LEE 

made of different and finer metal than all other men. 
He is stamped upon my memory as being apart and 
superior to all others in every way, a man with whom 
none I ever knew and few of whom I have read are 
worthy to be classed. When all the angry feelings 
aroused by the secession are buried with those that 
existed when the American Declaration of Independ- 
ence was written; when Americans can review the his- 
tory of their last great war with calm impartiality, I 
believe all will admit that General Lee towered far 
above all men on either side in that struggle. I believe 
he will be regarded not only as the most prominent 
figure of the Confederacy, but as the greatest Ameri- 
can of the nineteenth century, whose statue is well 
worthy to stand on an equal pedestal with that of 
Washington and whose memory is equally worthy to 
be enshrined in the hearts of all his countrymen. 

"WOLSELEY." 




GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE 



CONTENTS 



Introduction . 



The cause of conflict and the call to arms— Those who 
answered the call— An army of volunteers— Our great leader 
—The call comes home— First Company Richmond Howitzers 
—Back to civil life— Origin of this narrative. 

I. Sketch of Camp Life the Winter Before the Spottsylvania 

Campaign 

Morton's Ford— Building camp quarters— "Housewarming" on 
parched corn, persimmons and water— Camp duties— Camp 
recreations — A special entertainment — Confederate soldier 
rations— A fresh egg— When fiction became fact— Confederate 
fashion plates— A surprise attack— Wedding bells and a visit 
home— The soldiers' profession of faith— The example of 
Lee, Jackson and Stuart— Spring sprouts and a "tar heel" 
story. 



IL 



IIL 



17 



Battle of the Wilderness g 

"Marse Robert" calls to arms-The spirit of the soldiers of 
the South— Peace fare and fighting ration— Marse Robert's 
way of making one equal to three— An infantry battle— Ar- 
rival of the First Corps-The love that Lee inspired in the 
men he led— "Windrows" of Federal dead. 

Battles of Spottsylvania Court House 06 

Stuart's four thousand cavalry— Greetings on the field of 
battle— "Jeb" Stuart assigns "a little job"— Wounding of 
Robert Fulton Moore— A useful discovery— Barksdale's Mis- 
sissippi Creeper— Kershaw's South Carolina "rice-birds"— 
Feeling pulses-Where the fight was hottest-Against heavy 
odds at "Fort Dodge"-"Sticky" mud and yet more "sticky" 

XV 



XVI . CONTENTS 

men — Gregg's Texans to the front — Breakfastless but "ready 
for customers" — Parrott's reply to Napoleon's twenty to two 
— The narrow escape of an entire company — Successive attacks 
by Federal infantry — Eggleston's heroic death — "Texas will 
never forget Virginia" — Contrast in losses and the reasons 
therefore — Why Captain Hunter failed to rally his men — 
Having "a cannon handy" — Grant's neglect of Federal 
wounded. 

IV. Cold Harbor and the Defense of Richmond 189 

The last march of our Howitzer Captain — The bloodiest 
fifteen minutes of the war — Federal troops refuse to be 
slaughtered — Dr. Carter "apologizes for getting shot" — Death 
of Captain McCarthy — A Summary. 



to Arms 



INTRODUCTORY 

In 1 86 1 a ringing call came to the manhood of the "^he Cause 
South. The world knows how the men of the South and the Call 
answered that call. Dropping everything, they came 
from mountains, valleys and plains — from Maryland 
to Texas, they eagerly crowded to the front, and stood 
to arms. What for? What moved them? What was 
in their minds? 

Shallow-minded writers have tried hard to make it 
appear that slavery was the cause of that war; that the 
Southern men fought to keep their slaves. They utterly 
miss the point, or purposely pervert the truth. 

In days gone by, the theological schoolmen held hot 
contention over the question as to the kind of wood 
the Cross of Calvary was made from. In their zeal 
over this trivial matter, they lost sight of the great 
thing that did matter; the mighty transaction, and pur- 
pose displayed upon that Cross. 

In the causes of that v/ar, slavery was only a detail 
and an occasion. Back of that lay an immensely greater 
thing; the defense of their rights — the most sacred 
cause given men on earth, to maintain at every cost. 
It is the cause of humanity. Through ages it has been, 
pre-eminently, the cause of the Anglo-Saxon race, for 
which countless heroes have died. With those men 
it was to defend the rights of their States to con- 



2 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

trol their own affairs, without dictation from anybody 
outside ; a right not given, but guaranteed by the Con- 
stitution, which those States accepted, most distinctly, 
under that condition. 

It was for that these men came. This was just 
what they had in their minds; to uphold that solemnly 
guaranteed constitutional right, distinctly binding all 
the parties to that compact. The South pleaded with 
the other parties to the Constitution to observe their 
guarantee; when they refused, and talked of force, 
then the men of the South got their guns and came to 
see about it. 

They were Anglo-Saxons. What could you expect? 
Their fathers had fought and died on exactly this 
issue — they could do no less. As their noble fathers, 
so their noble sons pledged their lives, and their sacred 
honor to uphold the same great cause — peaceably if 
they could; forcibly if they must. 
Those Who ,So the men of the South came together. They 

the^^dl came from every rank and calling of life — clergymen, 
bishops, doctors, lawyers, statesmen, governors of 
states, judges, editors, merchants, mechanics, farmers. 
One bishop became a lieutenant general; one clergy- 
man, chief of artillery, Army of Northern Virginia. 
In one artillery battalion three clergymen were can- 
noneers at the guns. All the students of one Theo- 
logical Seminary volunteered, and three fell in battle, 
and all but one were wounded. They came of every 
age. I personally know of six men over sixty years 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

who volunteered, and served In the ranks, throughout 
the war; and in the Army of Northern Virginia, more 
than ten thousand men were under eighteen years of 
age, many of them sixteen years. *" 

They came of every social condition of life: some 
of them were the most prominent men in the profes- 
sional, social, and political life of their States; owners 
of great estates, employing many slaves; and thou- 
sands of them, horny-handed sons of toil, earning their 
daily bread by their daily labor, who never owned a 
slave and never would. 

There came men of every degree of intellectual 
equipment — some of them could hardly read, and per 
contra, in my battery, at the mock burial of a pet crow, 
there were delivered an original Greek ode, an original 
Latin oration, and two brilliant eulogies in English — 
all in honor of that crow; very high obsequies had 
that bird. 

Men who served as cannoneers of that same bat- 
tery, in after life came to fill the highest positions of 
trust and influence — from governors and professors of 
universities, downward; and one became Speaker of 
the House of Representatives In the United States 
Congress. Also, it is to be noted that twenty-one men 
who served in the ranks of the Confederate Army be- 
came Bishops of the Episcopal Church after the war. 

Of the men who thus gathered from all the South- 
ern land, the first raised regiments were drawn to Vir- 
ginia, and there organized into an army whose duty 



Volunteers 



4 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

it was to cover Richmond, the Capital of the Con- 
federacy — just one hundred miles from Washington, 
which would naturally be the center of military activi- 
ties of the hostile armies. 
An Army of The body, thus organized, was composed entirely 
of volunteers. Every man in it was there because he 
wanted to come as his solemn duty. It was made up 
of regiments from every State in the South — Mary- 
land, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Ar- 
kansas and Tennessee. Each State had its quota, and 
there were many individual volunteers from Kentucky, 
Missouri and elsewhere. That army was baptized by 
a name that was to become immortal in the annals of 
war — "The Army of Northern Virginia." 

What memories cluster around that name! Great 
soldiers, and military critics of all nations of Chris- 
tendom, including even the men who fought it, have 
voiced their opinion of that army, and given it high 
praise. Many of them, duly considering its spirit, 
and recorded deeds, and the tremendous odds against 
which it fought, have claimed for It the highest place 
on the roll of honor, and in the Hall of Fame, among 
all the armies of history. 

Truly it deserves high place ! when you think that 
after four years of heroic courage, devotion, and 
endurance, never more than half fed, poorly supplied 
with clothes, often scant of ammunition, holding the 
field after every battle, that it fought, till the end. 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

worn out at last, It disbanded at Appomattox, when 
only eight thousand hungry men remained with arms 
in their hands, and they, defiant, and fighting still, 
when the white flags began to pass. They surrendered 
then only because General Lee said they must, 
because he would not vainly sacrifice another man; 
and they wept like broken-hearted children when they 
heard his orders. They would have fought on till 
the last man dropped, but General Lee said: "No, you, 
my men, go home and serve your country in peace as 
you have done in war." 

They did as General Lee told them to do, and it Our Great 
was the indomitable courage of those men and of the 
women of their land, who were just as brave, at home, 
as the men were, at the front, which has made the 
South rise from its ruins and blossom as the rose as 
it does this day. 

Thus "yielding to overwhelming numbers and re- 
sources," the Army of Northern Virginia died. But 
its glory has not died, and the splendor of its deeds 
has not, and will not grow dim. 

As, in vision, I look across the long years that have 
pressed their length between the now and then, I can 
see that Army of Northern Virginia on the march. 
At Its head rides one august and knightly figure, 
Robert E. Lee, the knightliest gentleman, and the 
saintliest hero that our race has bred. He Is on old 
"Traveler," almost as famous as his master. On his 
right rides that thunderbolt of war, Stonewall Jack- 



6 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

son, on "Little Sorrel," with whose fame the world 
was ringing when he fell. On Lee's left, on his 
beautiful mare, "Lady Annie," the bright, flashing 
cavalier, "Jeb" Stuart, the darling of the Army. 

Behind these three, in their swinging stride, tramp 
the long columns of infantry, artillery, and cavalry of 
the army. As we gaze upon that spectacle, we say, 
and nothing better can be said, "Those chiefs were 
worthy to lead those soldiers; those soldiers were 
worthy to follow Robert Lee." 

In this order. The Army of Northern Virginia, 
General Lee in front, has come marching down the 
road of history, and shall march on, and all brave 
souls of the generations stand at "Salute," and do 
them homage as they pass. Noble Army of North- 
ern Virginia ! 

All true men will understand and none, least of all 
the brave men who faced it in battle, will deny to the 
old Confederate the just right to be proud that he 
was comrade to those men and marched in their ranks, 
and was with their leader to the end. Of that army, 
I had, thank God! the honor to be a soldier. It came 
about in this way. 
The Call When the war began I was a school boy attending 

Comes the Military Academy in Danville, Virginia, where I 

was born and reared. At once the school broke up. 
The teachers, and all the boys who were old enough 
went into the army. I was just sixteen years old, and 
small for my age, and I can understand now, but could 



Home 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

not then, how my parents looked upon the desire of 
a boy like that to go to the war, as out of the ques- 
tion. I did not think so. I was a strong, well-knit 
fellow, and it seemed to me that what you required 
in a soldier was a man who could shoot, and would 
stay there and do it. I knew I could shoot, and 1 
thought I could stay there and do it, so I was sure 
I could be a soldier, and I was crazy to go, but my 
parents could not see it so, and I was very miserable. 
All my classmates in school had gone or were going, 
and I pictured to myself the boys coming back from 
the war, as soldiers who had been in battle, and all 
the honors that would be showered upon them — and 
I would be out of it all. The thought that I had not 
done a manly part in this great crisis would make me 
feel disgraced all my life. It was horrible. 

My father, the honored and beloved minister of 
the Episcopal Church in Danville, and my mother, the 
daughter and grand-daughter of two Revolutionary 
soldiers, said they wanted me to go, and would let 
me go, when I was older — I was too young and small 
as yet. But I was afraid it would be all over before 
I got in, and I would lay awake at night, sad and 
wretched with this fear. I need not have been afraid 
of that. There was going to be plenty to go around, 
but I did not know that then, and I was low in mind. 
I suppose that my very strong feeling on the subject 
was natural. It was the inherited microbe in the 
blood. Though I was only a school boy In a back 



8 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

country town, my forebears had always been around 
when there was any fighting to be done. My great- 
grandfather, General Thomas Nelson, and my grand- 
father. Major Carter Page, and all their kin of the 
time had fought through the Revolutionary War, My 
people had fought in the war of 1812, and the Mexi- 
can War, and the Indian Wars. Whenever anybody 
was fighting our country, some of my people were in 
it, and back of that. Lord Nelson of Trafalgar, was a 
second cousin of my great-grandfather, Thomas Nel- 
son; and, still farther back of that, my ancestor, 
Thomas Randolph, in comand of a division of the 
Scottish Army under King Robert Bruce, was the man 
who, by his furious charge, broke the English line at 
"Bannockburn" and won the Independence of Scot- 
land. 

You see that a boy, with all that back of him, in 
his family, had the virus in his blood, and could not 
help being wretched when his country was invaded, 
and fighting, and he not in it. He would feel that he 
was dishonoring the traditions of his race, and untrue 
to the memory of his fathers. However, that school- 
boy brooding over the situation was mighty miser- 
able. When my parents realized my feelings, they, 
at last, gave up their opposition, and I went into the 
army with their consent, and blessing. 

While this matter was hanging fire, having been at 
a military academy, I was trying to do some little 
service by helping to drill some of the raw companies 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

which were being rapidly raised, in and around Dan- pirst 
ville. The minute I was free, off I went. Circum- ^?^P^"y 

, Kichmond 

Stances led me to enlist in a battery made up m Rich- Howitzers 
mond, known as the "First Company of Richmond 
Howitzers," and I was thus associated with as fine 
a body of men as ever lived — who were to be my 
comrades in arms, and the most loved, and valued 
friends of my after life. 

This battery was attached to "Cabell's Battalion" 
and formed part of the field artillery of Long- 
street's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. It 
was a "crack" battery, and was always put in when 
anything was going on. It served with great credit, 
and was several times mentioned in General Orders, 
as having rendered signal service to the army. It 
was in all the campaigns, and in action in every 
battle of the Army of Northern Virginia. It fought 
at Manassas, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Seven Days' 
Battle around Richmond in 1862, Second Manassas, 
Sharpsburg, Harpers Ferry, Fredericksburg, Chan- 
cellorsville, Gettysburg, Morton's Ford, The Wilder- 
ness, The Battles of Spottsylvania Court House, North 
Anna, Pole Green Church, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, 
and at Appomattox Court House. Every one of the 
cannoneers, who had not been killed or wounded, was 
at his gun in its last fight. The very last thing it did 
was to help "wipe up the ground" with some of Sheri- 
dan's Cavalry, which attacked and tried to ride us 



lO FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

down, but was cut to pieces by our cannlster fire, and 
went off as hard as their horses could run — as if the 
devil was after them. Then the surrender closed our 
service. 
Back to My comrades, as the rest of the army, scattered 

Civil Life |.q their homes. I went to my home in Danville, and 
had to walk i8o miles to get there. After a few days, 
which I chiefly employed in trying to get rid of the 
sensation of starving, I went to work. — got a place in 
the railroad service. 

After eighteen months of this, I proceeded to 
carry out a purpose that I had in mind since the clos- 
ing days of the war. I had been through that long 
and bloody conflict; I had been at my gun every time 
it went into action, except once when I was lying ill 
of typhoid fever; I had been in the path of death 
many times, and though hit several times, had never 
been seriously wounded, or hurt badly enough to have 
to leave my gun — and here I was at the end of all 
this — alive, and well and strong, and twenty years of 
age. As I thought of God's merciful protection 
through all those years of hardship and danger, a 
wish and purpose was born, and got fixed in my mind 
and heart, to devote my life to the service of God 
In the completest way I could as a thanksgiving to 
Him. Naturally, my thoughts turned to the min- 
istry of the Gospel, and I decided to enter the semi- 
nary and train for that service as soon as the way 
was open. 



INTRODUCTORY I I 

While I was in the railroad train work, I studied 
hard in the scraps of time to get some preparation, 
and in September, 1866, I entered the Virginia The- 
ological Seminary along with twenty-five other stu- 
dents — all of whom were Confederate soldiers. I 
here tackled a job that was much more trying than 
working my old twelve-pounder brass Napoleon gun 
in a fight. I would willingly have swapped jobs, if 
it had been all the same, but I worked away, the best 
I could, at the Hebrew, and Greek, and "Theology," 
and all the rest, for three years. 

Somehow I got through, and graduated, and was 
ordained by Bishop Johns of Virginia, the twenty-sixth 
of June, 1869. Thus the old cannoneer was trans- 
formed into a parson, who intended to try to be as 
faithful to duty, as a parson, as the old cannoneer had 
been. He has carried that purpose through life ever 
since. How far he has realized it, others will have 
to judge. 

After serving for nine years in several parishes 
in Virginia, I came to Baltimore as rector of Me- 
morial Church, and have been here ever since. Hence 
I have served in the ministry for fifty years — forty- 
one of which I have spent serving the Memorial 
Church, and having, as a side line, been Chaplain of 
the "Fifth Regiment Maryland National Guard" for 
thirty-odd years. When one is bitten by the military 
"bee" in his youth, he never gets over it — the sight 



12 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

of a line of soldiers, and the sound of martial music 
stirs me still, as it always did, and I have had the 
keenest interest and pleasure in my association with 
that splendid regiment, and my dear friends and 
comrades in it. 

So, through the changes and chances of this mor- 
tal life, I have come thus far, and by the blessing of 
God, and the patience of my people, at the age of 
seventy-four I am still in full work among the people, 
whom I have served so long, and loved so well — still 
at my post where I hope to stay till the Great Cap- 
tain orders me off to service in the only place I know 
of, that is better than the congregation of Memorial 
Church, and the community of Baltimore — and that is 
the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven. 
Origin of Now, what I have been writing here is intended 

™^ . to lead up to the narrative set forth in the pages of 

this volume. Sam Weller once said to Mr. Pickwick, 
when invited to eat a veal pie, "Weal pies is werry 
good, providin' you knows the lady as makes 'em, and 
is sure that they is weal and not cats." The remark 
applies here : a narrative Is "werry good providin' you 
knows" the man as makes it, and are sure that it Is 
facts, and not fancy tales. You want to be satisfied 
that the writer was a personal witness of the things he 
writes about, and Is one who can be trusted to tell you 
things as he actually saw them. I hope both these 
conditions are fulfilled in this narrative. 



INTRODUCTORY 1 3 

But some one might say, "How about this narra- 
tive that you are about to impose on a suffering public, 
who never did you any harm? What do you do it 
for?" 

Well, I did not do it of malice aforethought. It 
came about in this way. Young as I was when I went 
into the war, and never having seen anything of the 
world outside the ordinary life of a boy, in a quiet 
country town, the scenes of that soldier life made a 
deep impression on my mind, and I have carried a 
very clear recollection of them — everyone — in my 
memory ever since. As I have looked back, and 
thought upon the events, and especially the spirit, 
and character, and record, of my old comrades in 
that army, my admiration, and estimate of their high 
worth as soldiers has grown ever greater, and I felt 
a very natural desire that others should know them 
as I knew them — and put them in their rightful rank 
as soldiers. The only way to do this is for those 
who know to tell people about them; what manner 
of warriors they were. 

Now mark how one glides into mischief uninten- 
tionally. Years ago, I was beguiled into making, at 
various times, places, and occasions, certain, what 
might be called, "Camp Fire Talks" descriptive of 
Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia. 
Weakly led on by the kindly expressed opinions of 
those who heard these talks, and urged by old friends. 



14 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

and comrades, and others, I ventured on a more con- 
nected narrative of our observations and experiences, 
as soldiers in that army. I wrote a sketch, in that 
vein, of the "Spottsylvania Campaign" — in 1864 — 
fought between General Lee and General Grant. It 
was a tremendous struggle of the two armies for thirty 
days — almost without a break. It was a thrilling 
period of the war, and brought out the high quality 
of both the Commander and the fighting men of the 
Army of Northern Virginia. 

It was the bloodiest struggle known to history, up 
to that time. As one item, at Cold Harbor, General 
Grant, in fifteen minutes, by the watch, lost 13,723 
men, killed and wounded, irrespective of many pris- 
oners — more men in a quarter of an hour than the 
British Army lost in the whole battle of Waterloo. 
That gives an idea of the terrible intensity of that cam- 
paign — one incident of it the bloodiest quarter of an 
hour in all the history of war. 

I took as a title for my sketch "From the Rapidan 
to Richmond" or "The Bloody War Path of 1864"— 
"The Scenes One Soldier Saw." 

As a guarantee of its accuracy, I took that narra- 
tive to Richmond, and in the presence of fifteen of my 
old comrades of the First Howitzers, every man of 
whom had been along with me through all the inci- 
dents of which I wrote, and therefore had personal 
knowledge of all the facts, I read it, and we freely 
discussed it. What resulted has the approval, and en- 



INTRODUCTORY 1 5 

dorsement of all those personal witnesses, and may 
be counted on as accurate — in every statement and im- 
pression made in this story, and may be safely accepted 
by the reader as a true narration of facts. 

I am urged to put the narrative in such form that 
its contents may be more widely known, and I am 
glad to do it. I do want as many as possible to know 
my old comrades as I knew them, and value them at 
their true worth. My narrative is a true account of 
that soldier life, and illustrates the stuff of which those 
men of the Army of Northern Virginia were made. 
The story illustrates this in a graphic and impressive 
way, because it is a simple and homely story of how 
they lived, and what they did — showing what they 
were. It is an honorable testimony to the character, 
and worth, as patriot soldiers, of my old comrades — 
borne by one who saw them display their courage, and 
endurance, and devotion in heroic conduct, in every 
possible way, through the long strain, and stress of 
war — to the end. 

I believe there is interest and value, to the true un- 
derstanding of history, in such narratives of personal 
witnesses to the men, and things, and conditions of 
that past, which reflected so much glory on the man- 
hood of our American race; which sterling quality, of 
high soldierly worth, has just been shown again, in 
the present generation of our race, when American 
soldiers, drawn from the North, South, East and West 
have stood, shoulder to shoulder, in the one Ameri- 



1 6 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

can line, under the Star-Spangled Banner, and fight- 
ing for the freedom of the world. Our splendid 
American men of today are what they are, and have 
done what they did, because the blood of their sires 
runs in them; because they are "the same breed of 
dogs" with the American soldiers, who, on both sides, 
in the bloody struggle of the Civil War, bore them so 
bravely in the days gone by. 

This narrative only paints the picture, and gives a 
sample of the Anglo-Saxon American soldier of the 
generation just gone; it shed lustre upon our race. 
This generation has done the same — all honor to 
both! 
A Summary Let US Americans, at all cost, keep pure the Anglo- 

Saxon blood, to which this America belongs, of right; 
let us as a nation, Americans all, work and dwell to- 
gether In true comradeship, and let our nation walk 
in just and right ways, for our country. Then, indeed, 
our heart's aspiration shall be fulfilled. 

"And the Star-Spangled Banner forever shall wave 
O'er the land of the free — and the home of the brave." 

As a preface to the sketch of the active campaign, 
I have given some account of our life In the winter 
quarters camp, the winter before, from which we 
marched to battle when the Spottsylvania Campaign 
opened. 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO 
RICHMOND 



CHAPTER I 

SKETCH OF CAMP LIFE THE WINTER BEFORE THE 
SPOTTSYLVANIA CAMPAIGN 

From Orange Court House, Virginia, the road ,, 

, • ^1 A,r , Mortons 

running northeast into Culpeper crosses Morton s Ford 
Ford of the Rapidan River, which, in December, 1863, 
lay between the "Federal Army of the Potomac" and 
the "Confederate Army of Northern Virginia." The 
Ford is nineteen miles from Orange Court House. 

Just after the battle of Mine Run, November 26 
to 28, our Battery left its bivouac near the Court 
House, and marched to the Ford. As the road reaches 
a point within three-quarters of a mile of the river, 
it rises over a sharp hill and thence winds its way down 
the hill to the Ford. On the ridge, just where the road 
crosses it, the guns of the Battery, First Company of 
Richmond Howitzers, were placed in position, com- 
manding the Ford, and the Howitzer Camp was to 
the right of the road, in the pine woods just back of 
the ridge. We had been sent here to help the Infan- 
try pickets to watch the enemy, and guard the Ford. 

17 



i8 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



Building 

Camp 

Quarters 



Orders were that we should remain in this position all 
winter, and were to make ourselves as comfortable as 
we could, with a view to this long stay. We got there 
December 2 and 3, and, in fact, did stay there until 
the opening of the spring campaign, May 3, 1864. 

With these instructions, as soon as we placed our 
guns in battery on the hill, we went promptly to work 
to fix up winter quarters in the shelter of the pines 
down the hill just a few rods back of the guns. It 
was getting very cold, and rough weather threatened, 
so we pitched in and worked hard to get ready for it. 

Each group of tent mates chose their own site and 
thereon built such a house as suited their energy, and 
judgment, or fancy. Some few of the lazy ones stayed 
under canvas all winter, but most of us constructed 
better quarters. In my group, four of us lived to- 
gether, and we built after this manner. On our se- 
lected site, we marked off a space about ten feet 
square. We dug to the line all around, and to a 
depth of three or four feet in the ground — this going 
below the surface of the ground gave a better pro- 
tection against wind and cold than any wall one could 
build — and on that bleak hill you wanted all the shield 
from wind that you could get. Having dug a hole 
ten feet square and three feet deep, we went into the 
woods and cut, squared, and carried on our shoulders 
logs, twelve or eighteen inches thick, and twelve feet 
long — enough to build around three sides of that hole 
a wall four feet high. Half of the fourth side was 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 1 9 

taken up by the chimney, which was built of short logs 
split in half and covered well inside with mud. With 
such suitable stones as we could pick up, we lined the 
fire place immediately around the fire, and as far 
above as we had rocks to do it with. The other half 
of the fourth side was left for the door, over which 
was hung any old blanket or other cloth that we could 
beg, borrow or steal. 

The log walls done, we dug a deep hole, loosened 
up the clay at the bottom, poured in water and mixed 
up a lot of mud with which we chinked up the inter- 
stices between the logs and covered the wood in the 
chimney. The earth that had been thrown up in dig- 
ging the hole, we now banked up against the log wall 
all around, which made it wind proof; and then over 
this gem of architecture we stretched our fly. We had 
no closed tents — only a fly, a straight piece of tent 
cloth all open at the sides. Our fly, supported by a 
rude pole, and drawn down and firmly fastened to the 
top of the log wall, made the roof of the house. 

Then we went out and cut small poles and made a "House- 
bunk, to lift us off the ground. Over the expanse of p^J*J^°/' **" 
springy poles we spread sprigs of cedar — and this Corn, 
made a pretty good spring mattress. Last of all, we rn?wrter 
dug a ditch all around our house to keep the water 
from draining down into our room and driving us 
out. Then we went in, built a fire in our fireplace, 
called in our friends, and had a house-warming. The 
refreshments were parched corn, persimmons (which 



20 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

two of US v/alked two miles to get) and water. Of 
the latter, we had plenty in canteens borrowed from 
the boys. We had a bully time, and we kept it up 
late. Then we went to bed in our cosy bunk and slept 
like graven images till reveille next morning. Thus 
we were housed for the winter — "under our own vine 
and fig tree," so to speak. 

Most of the other houses were built after the same 
general style. We bragged that we had the best house 
in camp, and were very chesty about it. Others did 
likewise. 

The men's quarters ready, v/e at once set to work 
on stables for the horses, of which there were about 
seventy, belonging to the Battery. All hands were 
called in to do this work. We scattered through the 
woods, cut logs and carried them on our shoulders to 
the spot selected. We built up walls around three 
sides, leaving the fourth or sunny side open. Then 
we cut logs into three or four foot lengths and split 
them into slabs, and with these slabs, as a rough sort 
of shingle, covered the roof and weighted them down, 
in place, with long, heavy logs laid across each row 
of slabs. Then we mixed mud and stopped up the 
cracks in the log walls. Altogether, we had a good, 
strong wind and rain-proof building, which was an 
effective shelter for the horses and in which they kept 
dry and comfortable through the winter — which was 
a cold and stormy one. All the men worked hard, 
and we soon had the stable finished, and the horses 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 2 1 

housed. Thus our building work was done, and we 
setled into the regular routine of camp life. 

Perhaps a little sketch of our life in winter quar- Camp 
ters, how we lived, how we employed ourselves, and 
what we did to pass away the time, may be interesting. 
I will try to give you some account of all that. 

Of course, we all had our military duties to attend 
to regularly. The drivers had to clean, feed, water, 
and exercise the horses, and keep the stables in order. 
The "cannoneers" had to keep the guns clean, bright, 
and ready for service any minute — also they had to 
stand guard at the guns on the hill all the time, and 
over the camp, at night, to guard the forage, and look 
after things generally. We had to drill some every 
day — police the camp and keep the roads near the 
camp in order. To this day's work we were called, 
every morning at six o'clock, by the bugler blowing 
the reveille. I may mention the fact that Prof. Francis 
Nicholas Crouch, the composer of the famous and 
beautiful song, "Kathleen Mavourneen," was the 
bugler of our Battery, and he was the heartless 
wretch who used to persecute us that way. To be 
waked up and hauled out about day dawn on a cold, 
wet, dismal morning, and to have to hustle out and 
stand shivering at roll call, was about the most exas- 
perating item of the soldier's life. The boys had a 



22 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

song very expressive of a soldier's feelings when 
nestling in his warm blankets, he heard the malicious 
bray of that bugle. It went like this: 

"Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning ; 

Oh, how I'd like to remain in bed. 
But the saddest blow of all is to hear the bugler call, 

'You've got to get up, you've got to get up, 
You've got to get up this morning!' 

"Some day I'm going to murder that bugler; 

Some day they're going to find him dead. 
I'll amputate his reveille. 
And stamp upon it heavily. 

And spend the rest of my life in bed!" -^ 

We didn't kill old Crouch — I don't know why, ex- 
cept that he was protected by a special providence, 
which sometimes permits such evil deeds to go unpun- 
ished. We used to hope that he would blow his own 
brains out, through his bugle, but he didn't — he lived 
many years after the war. 
Camp In between our stated duties, we had some time 

in which we could amuse ourselves as we chose, and 
we had many means of entertainment. We had a 
chessboard and men — a set of quoits, dominoes, and 
cards; and there was the highly intellectual game of 
"push pin" open to all comers. Some very skillful 
chess players were discovered in the company. When 
the weather served, we had games of ball, and other 



Recreations 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 23 

athletic games, such as foot races, jumping, boxing, 
wrestling, lifting heavy weights, etc. At night we 
would gather in congenial groups around the camp 
fires and talk and smoke and "swap lies," as the boys 
expressed it. 

There was one thing from which we got a great 
deal of fun. We got up an organization amongst the 
youngsters which was called the "Independent Bat- 
talion of Fusiliers." The basal principle of this kind 
of heroes was, "In an advance, always in the rear — 
in a retreat, always in front. Never do anything that 
you can help. The chief aim of life is to rest. If you 
should get to a gate, don't go to the exertion of open- 
ing it. Sit down and wait until somebody comes along 
and opens it for you." 

After the first organizers, no one applied for ad- 
mission into the Battalion — they were elected into it, 
without their consent. The way we kept the ranks 
full was this : Whenever any man in the Battery did 
any specially trifling, and good-for-nothing thing, or 
was guilty of any particularly asinine conduct, or did 
any fool trick, or expressed any idiotic opinion, he was 
marked out as a desirable recruit for the Fusiliers^ 
We elected him, went and got him and made him 
march with us in parade of the Battalion, and solemnly 
invested him with the honor. This was not always a 
peaceable performance. Sometimes the candidate, not 
appreciating his privilege, had to be held by force, and 



24 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



A Special 
Entertain- 
ment 



was struggling violently, and saying many bad words, 
during the address of welcome by the C. O. 

I grieve to say that an election into this notable 
corps was treated as an insult, and responded to by 
hot and unbecoming language. One fellow, when in- 
formed of his election, flew into a rage, and said bad 
words, and offered to lick the whole Battalion. But 
what would they have? We were obliged to fill up 
the ranks. 

After a while it did come to be better understood, 
and was treated as a joke, and some of the more sober 
men entered into the fun, and would go out on parade, 
and take part in the ceremony. We paraded with a 
band composed of men beating tin buckets, frying 
pans, and canteens, with sticks, and whistling military 
music. It made a noisy and impressive procession. 
It attracted much attention and furnished much amuse- 
ment to the camp. 

On proper occasions, promotions to higher rank 
were made for distinguished merit in our line. An 
instance will illustrate. One night, late, I was passing 
along when I saw this sight. The sentinel on guard 
in camp was lying down on a pile of bags of corn at 
the forage pile — sound asleep. He was lying on his 
left side. One of the long tails of his coat was hang- 
ing loose from his body and dangling down alongside 
the pile of bags. A half-grown cow had noiselessly 
sneaked up to the forage pile, and been attracted by 
that piece of cloth hanging loose — and, as calves will 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 25 

do, took the end of it into her mouth and was chewing 
it with great satisfaction. I called several of the fel- 
lows, and we watched the pioceedings. The calf got 
more and more of the coat tail into her mouth. At 
length, with her mouth full of the cloth, and perhaps 
with the purpose of swallowing what she had been 
chewing she gave a hard jerk. The cloth was old, 
the seams rotten — that jerk pulled the whole of that 
tail loose from the body of the coat. The sleeping 
guard never moved. We rescued the cloth from the 
calf, and hid it. When the sleeper awoke, to his sur- 
prise, one whole tail of his coat was gone, and he was 
left with only one of the long tails. Our watching 
group, highly delighted ^ at the show of a sentinel 
sleeping, while a calf was browsing on him, told him 
what had happened and that the calf had carried off 
the other coat tail. He was inconsolable. He was 
the only private in the company who had a long-tailed 
coat and it was the pride of his heart. There was no 
way of repairing the loss, and he had to go around 
for days, sad and dejected, shorn of his glory — with 
only one tail to his coat. 

All this was represented to the "Battalion of Fusi- 
liers." Charges were preferred, and the Court Mar- 
tial set. The witnesses testified to the facts — also said 
that if we had not driven off the calf it would have 
gone on, after getting the coat tail, and chewed up 
the sentinel, too. The findings of the Court Martial 
were nicely adjusted to the merits of the case. It was. 



26 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



Confederate 

Soldier 

Rations 



that the witnesses were sentenced to punishment for 
driving off the calf, and not letting her eat up the 
sentinel. 

For the sentinel, who appeared before the Court 
with the one tail to his coat, it was decreed that his 
conduct was the very limit. No one could ever hope 
to find a more thorough Fusilier than the man who 
went to sleep on guard and let a calf eat his clothes 
off. iSuch conduct deserved most distinguished regard, 
as an encouragement to the Fusihers. He was pro- 
moted to the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Bat- 
talion, the highest rank in our corps. After a while 
the lost coat tail was produced, and sewed on again. 
. The one thing that we suffered most from, the 
hardship hardest to bear, was hunger. The scantiness 
of the rations was something fierce. We never got a 
square meal that winter. We were always hungry. 
Even when we were getting full rations the issue was 
one-quarter pound of bacon, or one-half pound of 
beef, and little over a pint of flour or cornmeal, ground 
with the cob on it, we used to think — no stated ration 
of vegetables or sugar and coffee — just bread and 
meat. Some days we had the bread, but no meat; 
some days the meat, but no bread. Two days we had 
nothing, neither bread nor meat — and it was a solemn 
and empty crowd. Now and then, at long intervals, 
they gave us some dried peas. Occasionally, a little 
sugar — about an ounce to a man for a three days' ra- 
tion. The Orderly of the mess would spread the 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 27 

whole amount on the back of a tin plate, and mark 
off thirteen portions, and put each man's share into 
his hand — three days' rations, this was. One time, in 
a burst of generosity, the Commissary Department 
stunned us by issuing coffee. We made "coffee" out 
of most anything — parched corn, wheat or rye — when 
we could get it. Anything for a hot drink at break- 
fast! But this was coffee — "sure enough" coffee — we 
called it. They issued this three times . The first time, 
when counted out to the consumer, by the Orderly, 
each man had 27 grains. He made a cup — drank it. 
The next time the issue was 16 grains to the man — 
again he made a cup and drank it. The third issue 
gave nine grains to the man. Each of these issues 
was for three days' rations. By now it had got down 
to being a joke, so we agreed to put the whole amount 
together, and draw for which one of the mess should 
have it all — with the condition, that the winner should 
make a pot of coffee, and drink it, and let the rest of 
us see him do it. This was done. Ben Lambert won — 
made the pot of coffee — sat on the ground, with us 
twelve, like a coroner's jury, sitting around watching 
him, and drank every drop. How he could do it, 
under the gaze of twelve hungry men, who had no 
coffee, it is hard to see, but Ben was capable of very 
difficult feats. He drank that pot of coffee — all the 
same ! \/ 

After this, there was no more issue of coffee. Even 
a Commissary began to be dimly conscious that nine 



28 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

grains given a man for a three days' rations was like 
joking with a serious subject, so they quit it, and dur- 
ing that winter we had mostly just bread and meat — 
very little of that, and that little not to be counted on. 

This hunger was much the hardest trial we had to 
bear. We didn't much mind getting wet and cold; 
working hard, standing guard at night; and fighting 
when required — we were seasoned to all that — but you 
don't season to hunger. Going along all day with a 
gnawing at your insides, of which you were always 
conscious, was not pleasant. We had more appetite 
than anything else, and never got enough to satisfy 
it — even for a time. 

Under this very strict regime, eating was like to 
become a lost art and our digestive organs had very lit- 
tle to do. We had very little use for them, in these 
days. A story went around the camp to this effect: One 
of the men got sick — said he had a pain in his stomach 
and sent for the surgeon. The doctor, trying to find 
the trouble, felt the patient's abdomen, and punched 
it, here and there. After a while he felt a hard lump, 
which ought not to be there. The doctor wondered 
what It could be — then feeling about, he found another 
hard lump, and then another, and another. Then the 
doctor was perfectly mystified by all those hard places 
in a man's Insides. At last, the explanation came to 
him: he was feeling the vertebras of the fellow's back- 
bone — right through his stomach! 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 29 

I do not vouch for the exact accuracy of all the 
details of the story, but it illustrates the situation. We 
all felt that our stomachs had dwindled away for want 
of use and exercise. 

Another incident, that I can vouch for, showing a Fresh 
the strenuous time the whole army had about food ^^ 
that winter: One day Major-Quartermaster John 
Ludlow, of Norfolk, met a Captain of Artillery from 
his own town of Norfolk — Capt. Charles Grandy, of 
the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues. The Major in- 
vited the Captain to dine with him on a certain day. 
He did not expect anything very much, but there was 
a seductive sound in the word "dining" and he ac- 
cepted. Grandy told the story of his experience on 
that festive occasion. He walked two miles to Major 
Ludlow's quarters, and was met with friendly cor- 
diality by his old fellow-townsman, and ushered into 
his hut where a bright fire was burning. After a time 
spent in conversation, the Major began to prepare for 
dinner. He reached up on a shelf, and took down a 
cake of bread, cut it into two pieces, and put them in 
a frying pan on the fire to heat. Then he reached up 
on the shelf and got down a piece of bacon — not very 
large — cut it into two pieces, and put them in another 
pan on the fire to fry. Down in the ashes by the fire 
was a tin cup covered over — its contents not visible. 
The dining table was an old door, taken from some 
barn and set up on skids. 



30 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

When the bread and meat were ready, the Major 
put it on the table and with a courtly wave of his hand 
said, "D-d-draw up, Charley." They seated them- 
selves. The Major gave a piece of bread and a piece 
of bacon to his guest, and took the other piece, of 
each, for himself. After he had eaten a while — the 
Major got up, went to the fireplace and took up the 
tin cup. He poured off the water, and, behold, one 
egg came to view. This egg, the Major put on a plate 
and, coming to the table, handed it to Grandy — "Ch- 
Ch-Charley, take an egg," as if there were a dish full. 
Charley, having been brought up to think it not good 
manners to take the last thing on the dish, declined 
to take the only egg in sight — said he didn't care spe- 
cially for eggs! though he said he would have given a 
heap for that egg, as he hadn't tasted one since he had 
been in the army. "But," urged the Major, "Ch-Ch- 
Charley, I insist that you take an egg. You must take 
one — there is going to be plenty — do take it." Under 
this encouragement, Grandy took the egg — while he 
was greatly enjoying it, suddenly there was a flutter in 
the corner of the hut. An old hen flew up from be- 
hind a box in the corner, lit on the side of the box and 
began to cackle loudly. The Major turned to Grandy 
and said, "I-I t-t-told you there was going to be a 
plenty. I invited you to dinner today because this was 
the day for the hen to lay." He went over and got 
the fresh egg from behind the box, cooked and ate it. 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 3 1 

So each of the diners had an egg. The incident was 
suggestive of the situation. Here was a Quartermaster 
appointing a day for dining a friend — depending for 
part of the feast on his confidence that his hen would 
come to time. The picture of that formal dinner in 
the winter t]uarters on the Rapidan is worth drawing. 
It was a fair sign of the times, and of Hfe in the Army 
of Northern Virginia; when it came to a Quartermas- 
ter giving to an honored, and specially invited guest, 
a dinner like that — it indicates a general scarceness. 

One bright spot in that "winter of our discon- When 
tent" — lives in my memory. It was on the Christmas Became Fact 
Day of 1863. That was a day specially hard to get 
through. The rations were very short indeed that 
day — only a little bread, no meat. As we went, so 
hungry, about our work, and remembered the good 
and abundant cheer always belonging to Christmas 
time; as we thought of "joys we had tasted in past 
years" that did not "return" to us, now, and felt the 
woeful difference in our insides — it made us sad. It 
was harder to starve on Christmas Day than any day 
of the winter. 

When the long day was over and night had come, 
some twelve or fifteen of us, congenial comrades, had 
gathered in a group, and were sitting out of doors 
around a big camp fire, talking about Christmas, and 
trying to keep warm and cheer ourselves up. 

One fellow proposed what he called a game, and 
it was at once taken up — though it was a silly thing 



32 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

to do, as It only made us hungrier than ever. The 
game was this — we were to work our fancy, and im- 
agine that we were around the table at "Pizzini's," in 
Richmond. Pizzini was the famous restauranteur 
who Avas able to keep up a wonderful eating house all 
through the war, even when the rest of Richmond 
was nearly starving. Well — in reality, now, we were 
all seated on the ground around that fire, and very 
hungry. In imagination we were all gathered 'round 
Pizzini's with unlimited credit and free to call for just 
what we wished. One fellow tied a towel on him, and 
acted as the waiter — with pencil and paper in hand 
going from guest to guest taking orders — all with the 
utmost gravity. "Well, sir, what will you have?" he 
said to the first man. He thought for a moment and 
then said (I recall that first order, it was monumental) 
"I will have, let me see — a four-pound steak, a turkey, 
a jowl and turnip tops, a peck of potatoes, six dozen 
biscuits, plenty of butter, a large pot of coffee, a gal- 
lon of milk and six pies — three lemon and three 
mince — and hurry up, waiter — that will do for a start; 
see 'bout the rest later." 

This was an order for one, mind you. The next 
several were like unto it. Then, one guest said, "I 
will take a large saddle of mountain mutton, with a 
gallon of crabapple jelly to eat with it, and as much 
as you can tote of other things." 

This, specially the crabapple jelly, quite struck the 
next man. He said, "I will take just the same as this 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 33 

gentleman." So the next, and the next. All the rest 
of the guests took the mountain mutton and jelly. 

All this absurd performance was gone through 
with all seriousness — making us wild with suggestions 
of good things to eat and plenty of it. 

The waiter took all the orders and carefully wrote 
them down, and read them out to the guest to be sure 
he had them right. 

Just as we were nearly through with this Barme- 
cide feast, one of the boys, coming past us from the 
Commissary tent, called out to me, "Billy, old Tuck 
is just in (Tucker drove the Commissary wagon and 
went up to Orange for rations) and I think there is 
a box, or something, for you down at the tent." 

1 got one of our crowd to go with me on the jump. 
Sure enough, there was a great big box for me — from 
home. We got it on our shoulders and trotted back 
up to the fire. The fellows gathered around, the top 
was off that box in a jiffy, and there, right on top, the 
first thing we came to — funny to tell, after what had 
just occurred — was the biggest saddle of mountain 
muttton, and a two-gallon jar of crabapple jelly to eat 
with it. The box was packed with all good, solid 
things to eat — about a bushel of biscuits and butter 
and sausage and pies, etc., etc. 

We all pitched in with a whoop. In ten minutes 
after the top was off, there was not a thing left in that 
box except one skin of sausage which I saved for our 
mess next morning. You can imagine how the boys 



34 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

did enjoy it. It was a bully way to end up that hungry 
Christmas Day. 

I wrote my thanks and the thanks of all the boys 
to my mother and sisters, who had packed that box, and 
I described the scene as I have here described it, which 
made them realize how welcome and acceptable their 
kind present was — and what comfort and pleasure it 
gave — all the more that it came to us on Christmas 
Day, and made It a joyful one — at the end, at least. 
v- In regard to all this low diet from which we suf- 
fered so much hunger that winter — It Is well worthy 
of remark that the health of the army was never bet- 
ter. At one time that winter there were only 300 men 
in hospital from the whole Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia — which seems to suggest that humans don't need 
as much to eat as they think they do. That army was 
very hungry, but It was very healthy! It looks like 
cause and effect! But It was a very painful way of 
keeping healthy. I fear we would not have taken that 
tonic, if we could have helped It, but we couldn't! 
Maybe It was best as it was. Let us hope so! / 

Well, the winter wore on In this regular way until 
the 3d or 4th of February, when our quiet was sud- 
denly disturbed in a most unexpected manner. Right 
in the dead of a stormy winter, when nobody looked 
for any military move — we had a fight. The enemy 
got "funny" and we had to bring him to a more serious 
state of mind, and teach him how wrong it was to dis- 
turb the repose of gentlemen when they were not look- 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 35 

ing for It, and not doing anything to anybody — just 
trying to be happy, and peaceable if they could get a 
chance. 

Leading up to an account of this, I may mention Confederate 
some circumstances in the way of the boys in the camp. Fashion 
Living the hard life, we were — one would suppose 
that fashion was not in all our thoughts; but even 
then, we felt the call of fashion and followed it in 
such lines, as were open to us. The instinct to "do as 
the other fellow does" is implanted in humans by na- 
ture; this blind impulse explains many things that 
otherwise were inexplicable. With the ladies it makes 
many of them wear hats and dresses that make them 
look like hoboes and guys, and shoes that make them 
walk about as gracefully as a cow in a blanket, instead 
of looking, and moving like the young, graceful ga- 
zelles — that nature meant, and men want them to look 
like. Taste and grace and modesty go for nothing — 
when fashion calls. 
^ Well, the blind impulse that affects the ladies so — 
moved us in regard to the patches put on the seats of 
our pants. This was the only particular in which we 
could depart from the monotony of our quiet, simple, 
gray uniform — which consisted of a jacket, and pants 
and did not lend itself to much variety; but fashion 
found a way. 

There must always be a leader of fashion. We 
had one — "The glass of fashion and the mould of 



36 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

form" in our gang was Ben Lambert. He could look 
like a tombstone, but was full of fun, and inventive 
genius. 

Our uniform was a short jacket coming down only 
to the waist, hence a hole in the seat of the pants was 
conspicuous, and was regarded as not suited to the 
dignity and soldierly appearance of a Howitzer. For 
one to go around with such a hole showing — any 
longer than he could help it — was considered a want 
of respect to his comrades. Public opinion demanded 
that these holes be stopped up as soon as possible. Sit- 
ting about on rough surfaces — as stumps, logs, rocks, 
and the ground — made many breaks in the integrity 
of pants, and caused need of frequent repairs, for ours 
was not as those of the ancient Hebrews to whom 
Moses said, "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee" — 
ours waxed very old, before we could get another pair, 
and were easily rubbed through. The more sedate 
men were content with a plain, unpretentious patch, 
but this did not satisfy the youngsters, whose aesthetic 
souls yearned for "they know not what," until Ben 
Lambert showed them. One morning he appeared at 
roll call with a large patch in the shape of a heart 
transfixed with an arrow, done out of red flannel. 
This at once won the admiration and envy of the sold- 
iers. They now saw what they wished, in the way of 
a patch, and proceded to get it. Each one set his in- 
genuity to work to devise something unique. Soon the 
results began to appear. Upon the seats of one, and 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 37 

another, and another, were displayed figures of birds, 
beasts and men — a spread eagle, a cow, a horse, a 
cannon. One artist depicted a "Cupid" with his bow, 
and just across on the other hip a heart pierced with 
an arrow from Cupid's bow — all wrought out of red 
flannel and sewed on as patches to cover the holes in 
the pants, and, at the same time, present a pleasing 
appearance. By and by these devices increased in 
number, and when the company was fallen in for roll 
call the line, seen from the rear, presented a very gay 
and festive effect. 

One morning, a General, who happened in camp — 
the gallant soldier, and merry Irishman, General Pat 
Finnegan, was standing, with our Captain, in front of 
the line, hearing the roll call. 

That done, the Orderly Sergeant gave the order, 
" 'Bout face!" The rear of the line was thus turned 
toward General Finnegan. When that art gallery — in 
red flannel — was suddenly displayed to his delighted 
eyes the General nearly laughed himself into a fit. 

Oh, boys," he cried out, "don't ever turn your backs 
upon the enemy. Sure they'll git ye — red makes a 
divil of a good target. But I wouldn't have missed 
this for the world." 

The effect, as seen from the rear, was impressive. 
It could have been seen a mile off — bright red patches 
on dull gray cloth. Anyhow it was better than the 
holes and it made a ruddy glow in camp. Also it gave 
the men much to amuse them. 



38 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Ben set the fashion In one other particular — viz., 
In hair cuts. He would come to roll call with his hair 
cut In some peculiar way, and stand In rank perfectly 
solemn. Ranks broken, the boys would gather eagerly 
about him, and he would announce the name of that 
"cut." They would, as soon as they could, get their 
hair cut In the same style. 

One morning, he stood In rank with every particle 
of his hair cut off, as if shaved, and his head as bare 
as a door knob. "What style Is that, Ben?" the boys 
asked. "The 'horse thief cut," he gravely announced. 
Their one ambition now, was to acquire the "horse- 
thief cut." 

There was only one man In the Battery who could 
cut hair — Sergeant Van McCreery — and he had the 
only pair of scissors that could cut hair. So every as- 
pirant to this fashionable cut tried to make interest 
with Van to fix him up; and Van, who was very good 
natured, would, as he had time and opportunity, accom- 
modate the applicant, and trim him close. Several of 
us had gone under the transforming hands of this ton- 
sorlal artist, when Bob Mcintosh got his turn. Bob 
was a handsome boy with a luxuriant growth of hair. 
He had raven black, kinky hair that stuck up from his 
head In a bushy mass, and he hadn't had his hair cut 
for a good while, and It was very long and seemed 
longer than It was because It stuck out so from his 
head. Now, It was all to go, and a crowd of the boys 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 39 

gathered 'round to see the fun. The modus operandi 
was simple, but sufficient. The candidate sat on a 
stump with a towel tied 'round his neck, and he held 
up the corners making a receptacle to catch the hair 
as it was cut. Why this — I don't know; force of habit 
I reckon. When we were boys and our mothers cut 
our hair, we had to hold up a towel so. We were told 
it was to keep the hair from getting on the floor and 
to stuff pincushions with. Here was the whole County 
of Orange to throw the hair on, and we were not mak- 
ing any pincushions — still Bob had to hold the towel 
that way. Van stood behind Bob and began over his 
right ear. He took the hair off clean, as he went, 
working from right to left over his head; the crowd 
around — jeering the victim and making comments on 
his ever-changing appearance as the scissors pro- 
gressed, making a clean sweep at every cut. We were 
thus making much noise with our fun at Bob's expense, 
until the shears had moved up to the top of his head, 
leaving the whole right half of the head as clean of 
hair as the palm of your hand, while the other half 
was still covered with this long, kinky, jet black hair, 
which in the absence of the departed locks looked twice 
as long as before — and Bob did present a spectacle 
that would make a dog laugh. It was just as funny 
as it could be. 

Just at that moment, in the midst of all this hilar- ^ Surpri 
ity, suddenly we heard a man yell out something as Attack 
he came running down the hill from the guns. We 



40 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

could not hear what he said. The next moment, he 
burst excitedly into our midst, and shouted out, "For 
God's sake, men, get your guns. The Yankees are 
across the river and making for the guns. They will 
capture them before you get there, if you don't 
hurry up." 

This was a bolt out of a clear sky — but we jumped 
to the call. Everybody instantly forgot everything 
else and raced for the guns. I saw McCreery running 
with the scissors in his hand; he forgot that he had 
them — but it was funny to see a soldier going to war 
with a pair of scissors! I found myself running beside 
Bob Mcintosh, with his hat oft, his head half shav^ed 
and that towel, still tied round his neck, streaming out 
behind him in the wind. 

Just before we got to the guns, Bob suddenly halted 
and said, "Good Heavens, Billy, it has just come to 
me what a devil of a fix I am in with my head in this 
condition. I tell you now that if the Yankees get too 
close to the guns, I am going to run. If they got me, 
or found me dead, they would say that General Lee 
was bringing up the convicts from the Penitentiary in 
Richmond to fight them. I wouldn't be caught dead 
with my head looking like this." 

We got to the guns on the hill top and looked to 
the front. Things were not as bad as that excited 
messenger had said, but they were bad enough. One 
brigade of the enemy was across the river and moving 
on us; another brigade was fording the river; and we 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 4 1 

could see another brigade moving down to the river 
bank on the other side. 1 hings were serious, because 
the situation was this: an Infantry Brigade from 
Ewell's Corps, lying in winter quarters in the country 
behind us, was kept posted at the front, whose duty it 
was to picket the river bank. It was relieved at regu- 
lar times by another Brigade which took over that duty. 

It so chanced that this was the morning for that 
relieving Brigade to come. Expecting them to arrive 
any minute, the Brigade on duty, by way of saving 
time, gathered in its pickets and moved off back to- 
ward camp. The other Brigade had not come up — 
careless work, perhaps, but here in the dead of winter 
nobody dreamed of the enemy starting anything. 

So it was, that, with one brigade gone; the other 
not up; the pickets withdrawn, at this moment there 
was nobody whatsoever on the front except our Bat- 
tery — and, here was the enemy across the river, mov- 
ing on us and no supports. 

In the meantime, the enemy guns across the river 
opened on us and the shells were flying about us in 
lively fashion. It was rather a sudden transition from 
peace to war, but we had been at this business before; 
the sound of the shells was not unfamiliar — so we 
were not unduly disturbed. We quickly got the guns 
loaded, and opened on that Infantry, advancing up the 
hill. We worked rapidly, for the case was urgent, and 
we made it as lively for those felows as we possibly 
could. In a few minutes a pretty neat little battle was 



42 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

making the welkin ring. The sound of our guns crash- 
ing over the country behind us made our people, in 
the camp back there, sit up and take notice. In a few 
minutes we heard the sound of a horse's feet running 
at full speed, and Gen. Dick Ewell, commanding the 
Second Corps, came dashing up much excited. As he 
drew near the guns he yelled out, "What on earth is 
the matter here?" When he got far enough up the 
hill to look over the crest, he saw the enemy advanc- 
ing from the river, "Aha, I see," he exclaimed. Then 
he galloped up to us and shouted, "Boys, keep them 
back ten minutes and I'll have men enough here to 
eat them up — without salt!" So saying, he whirled 
his horse, and tore off back down the road. 

In a few minutes we heard the tap of a drum and 
the relieving Brigade, which had been delayed, came 
up at a rapid double quick, and deployed to the right 
of our guns; they had heard the sound of our firing 
and struck a trot, A few minutes more, and the Brig- 
ade that had left, that morning, came rushing up and 
deployed to our left. They had heard our guns and 
halted and came back to see what was up. 

With a whoop and a yell, those two Brigades went 
at the enemy who had been halted by our fire. In a 
short time said enemy changed their minds about want- 
ing to stay on our side, and went back over the river 
a good deal faster than they came. They left some 
prisoners and about 300 dead and wounded — for us 
to remember them by. 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 43 

The battle ceased, the picket line was restored 
along the river bank, and all was quiet again. Bob 
Mcintosh was more put out by all this business than 
anybody else — it had interrupted his hair cut. When 
we first got the guns into action, everybody was too 
busy to notice Bob's head. After we got settled down 
to work, I caught sight of that half-shaved head and 
it was the funniest object you ever saw. Bob was No. 
I at his gun, which was next to mine, and had to swab 
and ram the gun. This necessitated his constantly 
turning from side to side, displaying first this, and 
then the other side of his head. One side was per- 
fectly white and bare; the other side covered by a mop 
of kinky, jet black hair; but when you caught sight of 
his front elevation, the effect was indescribable. While 
Bob was unconsciously making this absurd exhibition, 
it was too much to stand, even in a fight, I said to 
the boys around my gun, "Look at Bob." They looked 
and they could hardly work the gun for laughing. 

Of course, when the fight was over McCreery lost 
that pair of scissors, or said he did. There was not 
another pair in camp, so Bob had to go about with his 
head in that condition for about a week — and he 
wearied of life. One day in his desperation, he said 
he wanted to get some of that hair off his head so 
much that he would resort to any means. He had 
tried to cut some off with his knife. One of the boys. 
Hunter Dupuy, was standing by chopping on the level 



44 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

top of a Stump with a hatchet. Hunter said, "All 
right, Bob, put your head on this stump and I'll chop 
off some of your hair." The blade was dull, and It 
only forced a quantity of the hair down into the wood, 
where it stuck, and held Bob's hair fast to the stump, 
besides pulling out a lot by the roots, and hurting Bob 
very much. He tried to pull loose and couldn't. Then 
he began to call Hunter all the names he could think 
of, and threatened what he was going to do to him 
when he got loose. Hunter, much hurt by such un- 
gracious return for what he had done at Bob's request, 
said, "Why, Bob, you couldn't expect me to cut your 
hair with a hatchet without hurting some" — which 
semed reasonable. We made Bob promise to keep 
the peace, on pain of leaving him tied to the stump — 
then we cut him loose with our knives. 

After some days, when we had had our fun, Van 
found the scissors and trimmed off the other side of 
his head to match — Bob was happy. 

Wedding ^ ^^^ ^^Y^ after this I had the very great pleasure 

Bells and a of a little vlsIt to my home. My sister, to whom I 
was devotedly attached, was to be married. The mar- 
riage was to take place on a certain Monday. I had 
applied for a short leave of absence and thought, if 
granted, to have it come to me some days before the 
date of the wedding, so that I could easily get home 
In time. But there was some delay, and the official 
paper did not get into my hands until fifteen minutes 
before one o'clock on Sunday — the day before the 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 45 

wedding. The last train by which I could possibly 
reach home in time was to leave Orange Court House 
for Richmond at six o'clock that evening, and the 
Court House was nineteeen miles off. It seemed pretty 
desperate, but I was bound to make it. I had had a 
very slim breakfast that morning; I swapped my share 
of dinner that evening with a fellow for two crackers, 
which he happened to have, and lit out for the train. 

A word about that trip, as a mark of the times, 
may be worth while. I got the furlough at 12.45. ^ 
was on the road at one, and I made that nineteen miles 
in five hours — some fast travel, that ! I got to the 
depot about two minutes after six; the train actually 
started when I was still ten steps off. I jumped like 
a kangaroo, but the end of the train had just passed 
me when I reached the track. I had to chase the train 
twenty steps alongside the track, and at last, getting 
up with the back platform of the rear car, I made a 
big jump, and managed to land. It was a close shave, 
but with that nineteen-mile walk behind, and that wed- 
ding in front, I would have caught that train if I had 
to chase it to Gordonsville — "What do you take me 
for that I should let a little thing like that make me 
miss the party?" 

Well, anyhow, I got on. The cars were crowded — 
not a vacant seat on the train. We left Orange Court 
House at six o'clock P. M. — we reached Richmond 
at seven o'clock the next morning — traveled all night — 



46 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

thirteen hours for the trip, which now takes two and 
a half hours — and all that long night, there was not a 
seat for me to sit on — except the floor, and that was 
unsitable. When I got too tired to stand up any longer, 
I would climb up and sit on the flat top of the water 
cooler, which was up so near the sloping top of the 
car that I could not sit up straight. My back would 
soon get so cramped that I could not bear it any 
longer — then I crawled down and stood on the floor 
again. So I changed from the floor to the water 
cooler and back again, for change of position, all 
through the night in that hot, crowded car, and I was 
very tired when we got to Richmond. 

We arrived at seven o'clock and the train — Rich- 
mond and Danville Railroad — was to start for Dan- 
ville at eight. I got out and walked about to limber 
up a little for the rest of the trip. I had a discussion 
with myself which I found it rather hard to decide. 
I had only half a dollar in my pocket. The furlough 
furnished the transportation on the train, and the ques- 
tion was this — with this I could get a little something 
to eat, or I could get a clean shave. On the one hand 
I was very hungry. I had not eaten anything since 
early morning of the day before, and since then had 
walked nineteen miles and spent that weary night on 
the train without a wink of sleep. Moreover, there 
was no chance of anything to eat until we got to Dan- 
ville that night — another day of fasting — strong rea- 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 47 

sons for spending that half dollar in food. On the 
other hand, I was going to a wedding party where I 
would meet a lot of girls, and above all, was to "wait" 
with the prettiest girl in the State of Virginia. In those 
days, the wedding customs were somewhat different 
from those now in vogue. Instead of a "best man" 
to act as "bottle holder" to the groom, and a "best 
girl" to stand by the bride and pull off her glove, and 
fix her veil, and see that her train hangs right, when 
she starts back down the aisle with her victim — the 
custom was to have a number of couples of "waiters" 
chosen by the bride and groom from among their spe- 
cial friends, who would march up in procession, ahead 
of the bride and groom, who followed them arm in arm 
to the chancel. 

The "first waiters" did the office of "best" man 
and girl, as it is now. I have been at a wedding where 
fourteen couples of waiters marched in the procession. 

Well, I was going into such company, and had 
to escort up the aisle that beautiful cousin, that I was 
telling you about — naturally I wanted to look my best, 
and the more I thought about that girl, the more I 
wanted to, so I at last decided to spend that only fifty 
cents for a clean shave — and got it. My heart and 
my conscience approved of this decision, but I suffered 
many pangs in other quarters, owing to that long fast- 
ing day. However, virtue is its own reward, and that 
night when I got home, and that lovely cousin was the 
first who came out of the door to greet me, dressed 



48 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

in a well, white swiss muslin — I reckon — and 

looking like an angel, I felt glad that I had a clean 
face. 

And after the rough life of camp, what a delicious 
pleasure it was to be with the people I loved best on 
earth, and to see the fresh faces of my girl friends, 
and the kind faces of our old friends and neighbors! 
I cannot express how delightful it was to be at home — 
the joy of it sank into my soul. Also, I might say, 
that at the wedding supper, I made a brilliant reputa- 
tion as an expert with a knife and fork, that lived in 
the memory of my friends for a long time. My cour- 
age and endurance in that cuisine commanded the won- 
der, and admiration, of the spectators. It was good 
to have enough to eat once more. I had almost for- 
gotten how it felt — not to be hungry; and it was the 
more pleasant to note how much pleasure it gave your 
friends to see you do it, and not have a lot of hungry 
fellows sitting around with a wistful look in their eyes. 

Well, I spent a few happy days with the dear home 
folks in the dear old home. This was the home where 
I had lived all my life, in the sweetest home life a boy 
ever had. Everything, and every person in and 
around it, was associated with all the memories of a 
happy childhood and youth. It was a home to love; 
a home to defend ; a home to die for — the dearest spot 
on earth to me. It was an inexpressible delight to be 
under its roof — once more. I enjoyed it with all my 
heart for those few short days — then, with what cheer- 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 49 

fulness I could — hied me back to camp — to rejoin my 
comrades, who were fighting to protect homes that 
were as dear to them as this was to me. 

I made another long drawn-out railroad trip, wind- 
ing up with that same old nineteen miles from Orange 
to the camp, and I got there all right, and found the 
boys well and jolly, but still hungry. They went wild 
over my graphic description of the wedding supper. 
The picture was very trying to their feelings, because 
the original was so far out of reach. 

In this account of our life in that winter camp, it The 
remains for me to record the most important occur- profJJsion 
rence of all. About this time there came into the life of Fai* 
of the men of the Battery an experience more deeply 
impressive, and of more vital consequence to them 
than anything that had ever happened, or ever could 
happen in their whole life, as soldiers, and as men. 
The outward beginning of it was very quiet, and sim- 
ple. We had built a little log church, or meeting 
house, and the fellows who chose had gotten into the 
way of gathering here every afternoon for a very 
simple prayer meeting. We had no chaplain and there 
were only a few Christians among the men. At these 
meetings one of the young fellows would read a pas- 
sage of Scripture, and offer a prayer, and all joined in 
singing a hymn or two. We began to notice an in- 
crease of interest, and a larger attendance of the men. 
A feature of our meeting was a time given for talk. 



50 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

when it was understood that if any fellow had any- 
thing to say appropriate to the occasion, he was at 
liberty to say it. Now and then one of the boys did 
have a few simple words to offer his comrades in con- 
nection, perhaps, with the Scripture reading. 

One day John Wise, one of the best, and bravest 
men in the Battery, loved and respected by everybody, 
quietly stood up and said, *'I think it honest and right 
to say to my comrades that I have resolved to be a 
Christian. I here declare myself a believer in Christ. 
I want to be counted as such, and by the help of God, 
will try to live as such." 

This was entirely unexpected. He sat down amidst 
intense silence. A spirit of deep seriousness seemed 
fallen upon all present. A hymn was sung, and they 
quietly dispersed. Some of us shook hands with Wise 
and expressed our pleasure at what he had said, and 
done. 

This incident procluced a profound impression 
among the men. It brought out the feelings about 
religion that had lain unexpressed in other minds. The 
thoughts of many hearts were revealed. The interest 
spread rapidly; the fervor of our prayer meetings 
grew. We had no chaplain to handle this situation, 
but men would seek out their comrades who were 
Christians, and talk on this great subject with them, 
and accept such guidance in truth, and dut)' as they 
could give. And now from day to day at the prayer 
meetings men would get up in the quiet way John Wise 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 5 1 

had done, and in simple words declare themselves 
Christians in the presence of their comrades. Most 
of them were among the manliest and best men of 
the company; they were dead in earnest, and their 
actions commanded the respect and sympathy of the 
whole camp. 

This movement went quietly on, without any fuss 
or excitement, until some sixty-five men, two-thirds of 
our whole number, had confessed their faith, and 
taken their stand, and in conduct and spirit, as well as 
in word, were living consistent Christian lives. They 
carried that faith, and that life, and character, home 
when they went back after the war — and they carried 
them through their lives. In the various communi- 
ties where they lived their lives, and did their work, 
they were known as strong, stalwart Christian men, 
and towers of strength to the several churches to 
which they became attached. Of that number twelve 
or fourteen men went into the ministry of different 
churches, and served faithfully to their life's end. 

What I have described as going on In our Battery 
off there by Itself at Morton's Ford, was going on 
very widely In the Army at large. There was a deep 
spiritual interest and strong revival of religion 
throughout the whole Army of Northern Virginia 
during that winter. Thousands and thousands of 
those splendid soldiers of the South, became just as 
devoted soldiers, and servants of Jesus Christ, and 
took their places in His ranks, and manfully fought 



52 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

under His banner, and were not ashamed to confess 
the faith of Christ crucified, and to stand for His 
cause. 

The effect of all this was very far-reaching. What 
these men carried back home with them wrought a 
great change in the South — a change in the attitude of 
the men of the South toward Christ's religion. There 
was a great change in that attitude, from before the 
war, and afterward, produced by the war. 

I will try to explain what I mean: Before the war, 
in the South, as I knew it — in the country neighbor- 
hoods, and in the villages, and small towns — you 
would find a group of men, often made up of the most 
influential, respected, educated, efficient men of that 
community, who were not members of any church or 
professed Christians. These were men of honor and 
integrity, respected by all, valuable citizens. They 
respected religion, went to church regularly, as became 
a gentleman, and gave their money liberally to sup- 
port the church as a valuable institution of society. 
That was, their attitude toward religion — respectful 
tolerance, but no personal interest — no need of it. 
Their thought, generally unspoken but sometimes ex- 
pressed, was that religion was all right for women, 
and children, and sick or weak men, but strong men 
could take care of themselves and had no need of it. 
And, of course, the young men coming on were influ- 
enced by their example and thought it manly to fol- 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 53 

low their example. The argument was specious. 
"There is Mr. Blank; he is an upright, good man, and 
no man stands higher in the community; he is just as 
good a man and citizen as any member of the church. 
He gets along all right without religion — I won't 
bother about it." So he let it alone and went his way. 
The very virtues of that group of men were a baleful 
influence in that community — led young men into the 
dreadful mistake that men do not need religion — that 
religion is not a manly thing. A good man who is not 
a Christian does ten-fold more harm, in a community, 
to the cause of Christ, and to the lives of men than 
the worst, and lowest man in it; so it was here ! 

When the call to war came, these very men were 
the first to go. As a rule they were the leaders, in 
thought and action, of their fellow-citizens, and they 
were high spirited, intensely patriotic, and quick to 
resent the invasion of their rights, and their State. In 
whole-hearted devotion to the cause, they went in a 
spirit that would make them thorough soldiers. 

Now when these men got into the army the "esprit jije 
de corps" took possession of them. They got shaken Example of 
down to soldier thoughts, and judgments. They began Jackson and 
to estimate men by their personal value to the cause 
that was their supreme concern. In that army, three 
men held the highest place In the heart and mind, of 
every soldier In it — they were General Lee, Stonewall 
Jackson and Jeb Stuart — each the highest in his line. 



54 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

All the army had, for these three men, reverent honor, 
enthusiastic admiration, and absolute confidence. We 
looked up to them as the highest types of manhood — 
in noble character, superb genius, and consummate 
ability. They were by eminence the heroes — the be- 
loved leaders of the army. There were many other 
able, and brilliant leaders, whom we honored, but 
these were set apart. In the thoughts, and hearts of 
all the army, and the country as well, these three were 
the noblest and highest representatives of our cause; 
and every man did homage to them, and was proud 
to do it. But, as was known, with all their high quali- 
ties of genius, and personal character, and superb man- 
hood, each one of these three men was a devout mem- 
ber of Christ's Church; a sincere and humble disciple 
of Jesus Christ; and in his daily life and all his actions 
and relations in life, was a consistent Christian man. 
All his brilliant service to his country was done as duty 
to his God, and all his plans and purposes were "re- 
ferred to God, and His approval and blessing invoked 
upon them, as the only assurance of their success." All 
who were personally associated with these men came 
to know that this was the spirit of their lives; and 
many times, in religious services, in camp, these men, 
so idolized by the army, and so great in all human eyes 
but their own, could be seen bowing humbly down be- 
side the private soldiers to receive the holy sacrament 
of the Blessed Body and Blood of Christ. 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 55 

Now, when the men, who had been so Indifferent 
to religion at home, as so unnecessary for them, came 
up against this fact, and came to look up to these three 
men as their highest ideals of manhood, they got an 
eye opener. If men like Lee, and Jackson, and Stuart, 
and others, felt the need of religion for themselves, the 
thought would come, "Maybe I need it, too. No man 
can look down on the manhood of these men; if they 
esteem religion as the crown of their manhood, it is 
not a thing to be despised, or neglected, or treated 
with indifference. It is a thing to be sought, and found 
and taken into my life." And this train of thought 
arrested the attention, and got the interest and stirred 
to truer thoughts, and finally brought them to Christ. 
Thousands of these men were led to become devout 
Christians, and earnest members of the church through 
the influence of the three great Christian leaders, and 
other Christian comrades in the army. 

Now, when these men got back home after the 
war and the survivors of those groups got settled back 
in their various communities, there was a great differ- 
ence in the religious situation, from what it had been 
before the war. There had taken place a complete 
change in these men, in their attitude toward religion, 
and this wrought a great change in this respect In their 
communities, for the returned soldiers of any commu- 
nity were given a place of peculiar honor, and influ- 
ence. They had their record of splendid, and heroic 



56 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

service behind them and they were held in affectionate, 
and tender regard — not only by their own families, 
and friends, but by all their neighbors and fellow- 
citizens. What that group of soldiers thought, and 
wanted, went in that town, or countryside. 

Now, that group of men who set the pace, and 
made the atmosphere in that community were Chris- 
tians. The serious phase of life; the seasoning of 
hardships; the discipline; the oft facing of death; the 
stern habit of duty at any cost, which they had passed 
through during the war had made them very strong 
men, and very earnest Christians. What they stood 
for, they stood for boldly, and outspokenly on all 
proper occasions. They were not one whit ashamed 
of their religion and were ready at all times, and 
about all matters to let the world know just where 
they stood; to declare by word, and deed who they 
were, and whom they served. 

All this set up before the eyes of that community 
a very strong, forcible, manly type of religion. These 
were not women, and children, and they were not sick 
or weak men — they were the very manliest men in 
that town, and so were taken and accepted by general 
consent. 

Just think of the effect of that situation upon the 
boys and young men growing up in that community. 
The veteran soldiers, back from the war, with all their 
honors upon them — were heroes to the young fellows. 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 57 

What the soldiers said, and did, were patterns for them 
to imitate; and the pattern of Christian life, set up 
before the youngsters, made religion, and church mem- 
bership most honorable in their eyes. They did not 
now, as aforetime, have to overcome the obstacle in 
a young man's mind which lay in the association of 
weakness with religion, and which had largely been 
suggested to them by the older men, in the former 
times. 

The old Christian soldiers, whom they now saw, 
set up in them the idea that religion was the manliest 
thing in the world, and so inclined them toward it, 
and assured the most serious, and respectful considera- 
tion of it. Religion could not be put aside lightly, or 
treated with contempt as unmanly, for those veteran 
heroes were living it and stood for it, and they were, 
in their eyes, the manliest men they knew. 

Now, this leaven of truer thought about religion 
was leading society all through the South; the South- 
ern men and boys everywhere were feeling its influ- 
ence, and it was having most remarkable effects. The 
increase in the number of men, who after the war were 
brought into the church by the direct influence of the 
returned soldiers, "who had found their souls" through 
the experiences of their army life, was tremendous. 
Those soldiers did a bigger service to the men of their 
race by bringing back religion to them than they did 
in fighting for them during the war. 



58 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Just after the war, in the far harder trials and 
soul agony of the Reconstruction days, I think that 
the wonderful patience, and courage which resisted 
humiliation, and won back the control of their States, 
and rebuilt their shattered fortunes and pulled their 
country triumphantly up out of indescribable disaster, 
can only be thus really explained — that those men 
were "strong and of a good courage" because "their 
minds were staked on God." 

The history of the Southern people during that 
epoch is unmatched by the history of any people in all 
time. The result they achieved, this was the reason — 
beneath the superb "grit" of the Southern people lay 
deep the conviction "God is our refuge and strength" 
and "The God whom we serve. He will deliver us." 
It was the spiritual vision of the men of the South 
that saved it when it was ready to perish — and let the 
men of the South never forget it! Let them give un- 
ceasing recognition and thanks to God, for that great 
deliverance. 

If I have made clear my thought — the connection 
of the religious revival in the army with the fortunes 
of our people at home after the war — I am glad! If 
I haven't, I am sorry! I can't say any fairer than 
that, and I can only make the plea that was stuck up 
in a church in the West, in the old rough days, when 
a dissatisfied auditor of the sermon, or the organist, 
was likely to express his disapproval with a gun. The 
notice up in front of the choir read like this: "Please 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 59 

don't shoot the musician, he's doing his level best" — 
I make the same request. 

But, to return to our muttons ! Let us get back to Spring 
the winter camp at Morton's Ford. f^'Tar^^Heef 

The winter had now worn away and the spring had Story 
come. Vegetation began to show signs of life. Its 
coming bore us one comfort in one way — among 
others. It was not so cold, and we did not have to 
tote so many logs of wood to keep up our fires. Down 
on the river flats, where vegetation showed sooner 
than it did on the hills, green things began to shoot 
up. Dandelions, sheep sorrel, poke leaves and such, 
though not used in civil life, were welcome to us, for 
they were much better than no salad at all. The men 
craved something green. The unbroken diet of just 
bread and meat — generally salt meat at that — gave 
some of the men scurvy. The only remedy for that 
was something acid, or vegetable food. The men 
needed this and craved it — so when the green shoots 
of any kind appeared we would go down on the flats, 
and gather up all the green stuff we could find, and 
boil it with the little piece of bacon we might have. 
It improved the health of the men very much. 

At this time, there was a North Carolina Brigade 
of Infantry at the front furnishing pickets for the river 
bank. They were camped just back of our winter 
quarters. Those fellows seemed to be very specially 
strong in their yearning for vegetable diet, so much so 



6o FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

that they attracted our attention. Every day we would 
see long lines of those men passing through our camp. 
They would walk along, one behind another, in almost 
unending procession, silent and lonesome, never say- 
ing a word and never two walking together — and all 
of them meandered along intent on one thing — get- 
ting down to the flats below "to get some sprouts" as 
they would say when asked where they were going. 

Later on, we would see them in the same solemn 
procession coming back to camp — every man with a 
bunch of something green in his fist. 

This daily spectacle of Tar Heels swarming 
through our camp interested us; we watched them 
mooning along. We tried to talk with them, but all 
we got from them was, "We'uns is going to git some 
sprouts. Don't you'uns love sprouts?" 

We did, but we didn't go after them in such a 
solemn manner. Our "sprout" hunts were not so fu- 
nereal a function; rather more jovial, and much more 
sociable. Also this devotion to the search for the herb 
of the field excited our curiosity. They were all the 
time craving green stuff, and going after it so con- 
stantly. We had a story going around which was sup- 
posed to explain the craving of a Tar Heel's insides 
for greens. 

This was the story: 

One of these men got into the hospital. He had 
something the matter with his liver. The doctor tried 
his best to find out what was the matter, and tried all 



SKETCH OF WINTER CAMP LIFE 6 1 

sorts of remedies — no results. At last, in desperation, 
the doctor decided to try heroic treatment. He cut 
the fellow open, took out his liver, fixed it up all right 
(whatever that consisted in), washed it off and hung 
it on a bush to dry, preparatory to putting it back in 
place. A dog stole the liver, and carried it off. Here 
was a bad state of things — the soldier's liver gone, 
the doctor was responsible. The doctor was up against 
it. He thought much, and anxiously. At last a bright 
idea struck him. He sent off, got a sheep, killed it, 
took out its liver, got it ready, and sewed it up in that 
soldier in place of his own. The man got well, and 
about his duties again. One day, soon after, the doc- 
tor met him and said with much friendly interest, 
"Well, Jim, how are you?" 

"Oh, doctor," he replied in a very cheerful tone, 
"I'm well and strong again." 

The doctor looked at him, and asked him signifi- 
cantly, "Jim, do you feel all right?" 

Falling into that characteristic whine, Jim said, 
"Yes, sir, I am well and strong, but. Doctor, all the 
time, now, I feel the strangest hankering after grass." 

That was the sheep's liver telling. Our theory 
was that all of those fellows had sheep's livers, and 
that accounted for the insatiable "hankering after 
grass." 

I told this story in an after-dinner speech at a ban- 
quet some time ago to a company of twenty-nine female 
doctors of medicine — trained, and practicing physi- 



62 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

cians. They made no protest; listened with unbroken 
gravity; accepted it as a narrative of actual occur- 
rence, and looked at me with wide-eyed interest. When 
I finished I thought it best to tell them that it was all 
a joke. Then they laughed themselves into a fit. 

Well, this little account of our doings, and our life 
in the winter camp at Morton's Ford — 1863- 1864 — 
is done. Out of its duties, and companionships; its 
pleasures, and its deeper experiences, we Howitzers 
were laying up pleasant memories of the camp for the 
years to come. And often in after years, when some 
of us comrades got together we would speak of the 
old camp at Morton's Ford. 

The spring was now coming on. We knew that our 
stay here could not last much longer. How, and when, 
and where we should go from here, we did not know. 
We knew we would go somewhere — that was all. "We 
would know when the time came, and 'Marse Robert' 
wanted us" he would tell us. 

That is the soldier's life — "Go, and he goeth; 
come, and he cometh; do this, and he doeth it." No 
choice. Wait for orders — then, quick! Go to It! 

Well we were perfectly willing to trust "Marse 
Robert" and perfectly ready to do just what he said. 
Meantime we take no anxious thought for the mor- 
row; we go on with our work, and our play — we are 
"prepared to move at a moment's warning." 



CHAPTER II 

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 

Nineteen miles from Orange Court House, Vir- 
ginia, the road running northeast into Culpeper 
crosses "Morton's Ford" of the Rapidan River, 
which, just now, lay between the Federal "Army of 
the Potomac" and the Confederate "Army of North- 
ern Virginia." 

As this road approaches within three-fourths of 
a mile of the river it rises over a sharp hill, and, 
thence, winds its way down the hill to the Ford. On 
the ridge, just where the road crosses it, the guns of 
the "First Richmond Howitzers" were in position, 
commanding the Ford; and the Howitzer Camp was to 
the right of the road, in the pine wood just back of 
the ridge. Here, we had been on picket all the winter, 
helping the infantry pickets to watch the enemy and 
guard the Ford. 

One bright sunny morning, the 2d of May, 1864, 
a courier rode into the Howitzer Camp. We had 
been expecting him, and knew at once that "some- 
thing was up." The soldier instinct and long experi- 
ence told us that it was about time for something to 

63 



64 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

turn up. The long winter had worn away; the sun 
and winds, of March and April, had made the roads 
firm again. Just across the river lay the great army, 
which was only waiting for this, to make another 
desperate push for Richmond, and we were there for 
the particular purpose of making that push vain. 

For some days we had seen great volumes of 
smoke rising, in various directions, across the river, 
and heard bands playing, and frequent volleys of fire- 
arms, over in the Federal Camp. Everybody knew 
what all this meant, so we had been looking for that 
courier. 

Soon after we reached the Captain's tent, orders 
were given to pack up whatever we could not carry on 
the campaign, and in two hours, a wagon would leave, 
to take all this stuff to Orange Court House; thence 
it would be taken to Richmond and kept for us, until 
next winter. 

This was quickly done! The packing was not 
done in "Saratoga trunks," nor were the things piles 
of furs and winter luxuries. The "things" consisted 
of whatever, above absolute necessaries, had been 
accumulated in winter quarters; a fiddle, a chess- 
board, a set of quoits, an extra blanket, or shirt, or 
pair of shoes, that any favored child of Fortune had 
been able to get hold of during the winter. Every- 
thing like this must go. It did not take long to roll 
all the "extras" into bundles, strap them up and 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 6$ 

pitch them into the wagon. And in less than two 
hours after the order was given the wagon was gone, 
and the men left in campaign "trim." 

This meant that each man had, left, one blanket, 
one small haversack, one change of underclothes, a 
canteen, cup and plate, of tin, a knife and fork, and 
the clothes in which he stood. When ready to march, 
the blanket, rolled lengthwise, the ends brought to- 
gether and strapped, hung from left shoulder across 
under right arm, the haversack, — furnished with 
towel, soap, comb, knife and fork in various pockets, 
a change of underclothes in one main division, and 
whatever rations we happened to have, in the other, — 
hung on the left hip; the canteen, cup and plate, tied 
together, hung on the right; toothbrush, "at will," 
stuck in two button holes of jacket, or in haversack; 
tobacco bag hung to a breast button, pipe in pocket. 
In this rig, — into which a fellow could get in just two 
minutes from a state of rest, — the Confederate Sold- 
ier considered himself all right, and ready for any- 
thing; in this he marched, and in this he fought. Like 
the terrapin — "all he had he carried on his back" — 
this all weighed about seven or eight pounds. 

The extra baggage gone, all of us knew that the 
end of our stay here was very near, and we were all 
ready to pick up and go; we were on the eve of battle 
and everybody was on the "qui vive" for decisive 
orders. They quickly came! 



66 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



"Marse 
Robert" 
Calls to 
Arms 



On the next day but one, the 4th, about 10 o'clock, 
another courier galloped into camp, and, in a few 
moments, everybody having seen him, all the men had 
swarmed up to the Captain's tent to hear the first 
news. Captain McCarthy came toward us and said, 
very quietly, "Boys, get ready! we leave here in two 
hours." Then the courier told us that "Grant was 
crossing below us in the wilderness. That everything 
we had was pushing down to meet him; and that 
Longstreet, lately back from Tennessee, was at Gor- 
donsville." The news telling was here interrupted by 
Crouch sounding the familiar bugle call — "Boots and 
saddles," which, to artillery ears, said, "Harness up, 
hitch up and prepare to move at a moment's warn- 
Ing." 

The fellows instantly scattered, every man to his 
quarters, and for a few minutes nothing could be seen 
but the getting down and rolling up of "flys" from 
over the log pens they had covered, rolling up blank- 
ets, getting together of each man's traps where he 
could put his hands on them. The drivers took their 
teams up on the hill to bring down the guns from 
their positions. All was quickly ready, and then we 
waited for orders to move. 

It was with a feeling of sadness we thought of 
leaving this spot! It had been our home for several 
months; it was painful to see it dismantled, and to 
think that the place, every part of which had some 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS Bj 

pleasant association with it, would be left silent and 
lonely, and that we should see it no more. 

While we waited, after each had bidden a sad 
"good-bye" to his house, and its endeared surround- 
ings, it was suggested that we gather once more, for 
a last meeting in our log church. All felt that this 
was a fitting farewell to the place. To many of us 
this little log church was a sacred place, many a hearty 
prayer meeting had been held there; many a rousing 
hymn, that almost raised the roof, many a good ser- 
mon and many a stirring talk had we heard; many a 
manly confession had been declared, many a hearty, 
impressive service in the solemn Litany of the Church, 
read by us, young Churchmen, in turn. To all the 
Christians of the Battery (they now numbered a 
large majority) this church was sacred. To some, 
it was very, very sacred, for in it they had been born 
again unto God. Here they had been led to find 
Christ, and in the assemblies of their comrades gath- 
ered here, they had, one after another, stood up and, 
simply, bravely, and clearly, witnessed a "good con- 
fession" of their Lord, and of their faith. 

So, we all instantly seized on the motion, to gather 
in the church. A hymn was sung, a prayer offered 
for God's protection in the perils we well knew, we 
were about to meet. That He would help us to be 
brave men, and faithful unto death, as Southern sold- 
iers; that He would give victory to our arms, and 
peace to our Country. A Scripture passage, the 91st 



68 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Psalm, declaring God's defense of those who trust 
Him, was read. And then, our "talk meeting." It 
was resolved that "during the coming campaign, every 
evening, about sunset, whenever it was at all pos- 
sible, we would keep up our custom, and such of us 
as could get together, wherever we might he, should 
gather for prayer." 

And, in passing, I may remark, as a notable fact, 
that this resolution was carried out almost literally. 
Sometimes, a few of the fellows would gather in 
prayer, while the rest of us fought the guns. Several 
times, to my very lively recollection we met under fire. 
Once, I remember, a shell burst right by us, and cov- 
ered us with dust; and, once, I recall with very par- 
ticular distinctness, a Minie bullet slapped into a 
hickory sapling, against which I was sitting, not an 
inch above my head. Scripture was being read at the 
time, and the fellows were sitting around with their 
eyes open. I had to look as if I had as lieve be there, 
as anywhere else; but I hadn't, by a large majority. 
I could not dodge, as I was sitting down, but felt like 
drawing in my back-bone until it telescoped. 

But, however circumstanced, in battle, on the bat- 
tle line, in interims of quiet, or otherwise, we held that 
prayer hour nearly every day, at sunset, during the 
entire campaign. And some of us thought, and think 
that the strange exemption our Battery experienced, 
our little loss, in the midst of unnumbered perils, and 
incessant service, during that awful campaign, was, 
that, in answer to our prayers, "the God of battles 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 69 

covered our heads in the day of battle" and was mer- 
ciful to us, because we "called upon Him." If any 
think this a "fond fancy" we don't. 

Well ! to get back ! After another hymn, and a 
closing prayer, we all shook hands, and then, we took 
a regretful leave of our dear little Church, and 
wended our way, quiet and thoughtful, to the road 
where we found the guns standing, all ready to go. 
Pretty soon the command — "Forward!" rang from 
the head of the line. We fell in alongside our respec- 
tive guns, and with a ringing cheer of hearty farewell 
to the old Camp, we briskly took the road, — to meet, 
and to do, what was before us. 

We tramped along cheerily until about dark, when 
we bivouacked on the side of the road, with orders 
to start at daylight next morning. As we pushed 
along the road, — what road! gracious only knows, 
but a country road bearing south toward Verdiers- 
ville, — brigades, and batteries joined our march, from 
other country roads, by which we found that all our 
people were rapidly pushing in from the camps and 
positions they had occupied during the winter, and 
the army was swiftly concentrating. 

It was very pleasant to us to get into the stir of 
the moving army again, as we had been off, quite by 
ourselves, during the winter, and the greetings and 
recognitions that flew back and forth as we passed, 
or were passed by, well known brigades or batteries, 
were hearty and vociferous. Such jokes and "chaf- 



70 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

fing" as went on! As usual, every fellow had his 
remark upon everything and everybody he passed. 
Any peculiarity of dress or appearance marked out a 
certain victim to the witty gibes of the men, which 
had to be escaped from, or the victim had to "grin 
and bear it." If "Puck" or "Punch" could have 
marched with a Confederate column once, they might 
have laid in a stock of jokes and witticisms, — and 
first-class ones, too, — for use the rest of their lives. 
Next morning, at daylight, — the 5th of May, — 
we promptly pulled out, and soon struck the highway, 
leading from Orange Court House to Fredericks- 
burg, turned to the left and went sweeping on toward 
"The Wilderness." 

The Spirit Here we got into the full tide of movement. 

of the Before and behind us the long gray columns were hur- 

Soldiers of . o o .^ 

the South rymg on to battle, — and as merry as crickets. 

One thing that shone conspicuous here, and always, 
was the indomitable spirit of the "Army of Northern 
Virginia," their intelligence about military movements; 
their absolute confidence in General Lee, and their 
quiet, matter of course, certainty of victory, under 
him. Here they were pushing right to certain battle, 
the dust in clouds, the sun blazing down, hardly any- 
thing to eat, and yet, with their arms and uniform 
away, a spectator might have taken them for a lot of 
"sand-boys on a picnic," if there had only been some 
eatables along, to give color to this delusion. 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 7 1 

And their intelligence! These men were not parts 
of a great machine moving blindly to their work. 
Very far from it! Stand on the roadside, as they 
marched by and hear their talk, the expression of their 
opinions about what was going on, you soon found 
that these men, privates, as well as officers, were well 
aware of what they were doing, and where they were 
going. In a general way, they knew what was going 
on, and what was going to go on, with the strangest 
accuracy. By some quick, and wide diffusion of intel- 
ligence among the men, they understood affairs, and 
the general situation perfectly well. For instance, as 
we passed on down that road to the fight, we knew, — 
just how we didn't know, — but we did know, and it 
was commonly talked of and discussed, as ascertained 
fact, among us as we marched, — that General Grant 
had about 150,000 men moving on us. We knew that 
Longstreet was near Gordonsville, and that one Divi- 
sion of A. P. Hill had not come up. We knew that 
we had, along with us there, only Ewell's Corps and 
two div^isions of A. P. Hill's Corps, the cavalry and 
some of Longstreet's artillery. In short, as I well 
remember, it was a fact, accepted among us, that 
General Lee was pushing, as hard as he could go, for 
Grant's 150,000 with about 35,000 men; and yet, 
knowing all this, these lunatics were sweeping along 
to that appallingly unequal fight, cracking jokes, laugh- 
ing, and with not the least idea in the world of any- 



72 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

thing else but victory. I did not hear a despondent 
word, nor see a dejected face among the thousands 
I saw and heard that day. I bear witness to this fact, 
which I wondered at then, and wonder at now. It is 
one of the most stirring and touching of my memories 
of the war. It was the grandest moral exhibition I 
ever saw! For it was simply the absolute confidence 
in themselves and in their adored leader. They had 
seen "Marse Robert" ride down that road, they knew 
he was at the front, and that was all they cared to 
know. The thing was bound to go right — "Wasn't 
Lee there?" And the devil himself couldn't keep 
them from going where Lee went, or where he 
wanted them to go. God bless them, living, or dead, 
for their loyal faith, and their heroic devotion! 

Peace Fare ^ have alluded to rations; they were scarce here, 

and Fighting as always when any fighting was on hand. Even in 

Rations! , ,, . , i i r 

camp, where all was at its best, we had tor rations, 
per day, one and a half pints of flour, or coarse corn- 
meal, — ground with the cob in it we used to think, — 
and one-quarter of a pound of bacon, or "mess pork," 
or a pound, far more often half a pound, of beef. 

But, in time of a fight ! Ah then, thin was the 
fare! That small ration dwindled until, at times, 
eating was likely to become a "lost art." I have seen 
a man. Bill Lewis, sit down and eat three days' rations 
at one time. Lie said "He did not want the trouble 
of carrying it, and he did want one meal occasionally 
that wasn't an empty form." The idea seemed to be 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 73 

that a Confederate soldier would fight exactly in pro- 
portion as he didn't eat. And his business was to fight. 
This theory was put into practice on a very close and 
accurate calculation; with the odds that, as a rule, we 
had against us, in the battles of the Army of North- 
ern Virginia, we had to meet two or three to one. 
Then, each Confederate soldier was called upon to 
be equal to two or three Federal soldiers, and, there- 
fore, each Confederate must have but one-half or one- 
third the rations of a Federal soldier. It was easy 
figuring, and so it was arranged in practice. 

It was eminently so in this campaign, from the 
first. When we left camp, on the 4th a few crackers 
and small piece of meat were given us, and devoured 
at once. That evening, and on this day, the 5th, we 
received none at all, and in that hard, forced march 
we became very hungry. An incident that occurred 
will show how hungry we were. As we passed the 
hamlet of Verdiersville, I noticed a little negro boy, 
black as the "ace of spades" and dirty as a pig, stand- 
ing on the side of the road gazing with staring eyes 
at the troops, and holding in his hand a piece of ash- 
cake, which he was eating. A moment after I passed 
him, our dear old comrade and messmate. Dr. Carter, 
the cleanest and most particular man in the army, 
came running after us (Carter Page, John Page, 
George Harrison, and myself) with gleeful cries, 
"Here, fellows, I've got something. It isn't much, 



74 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

hut it will give us a bite apiece. Herel look at this, 
a piece of hread! let me give you some." 

As he came up he held in his hand the identical 
piece of bread I had seen the little darkey munching 
on. It was a small, wet, half-raw fragment of corn 
ash-cake, and it had moulded on one edge a complete 
cast of that little nigger's mouth, the perfect print of 
every tooth. The Doctor had bought it from him for 
fifty cents, and now, wanted to divide it with us four — 
a rather heroic thought that was, in a man hungry as 
a wolf. Of course we young fellows flatly refused to 
divide it, as we knew the Doctor, twice our age, needed 
it more than we. We said, "We were not hungry; 
couldn't eat anything to save us." A lie, that I hope 
the recording Angel, considering the motive, didn't 
take down; or, if he did, I hope he added a note 
explaining the circumstances. 

We then began to joke the Doctor about the print 
of the little darkey's teeth on his bread and suggested 
to him, to break off that part. "No, indeed," said the 
Doctor, gloating over his precious ash-cake, "Bread's 
too scarce, / don't mind about the little nigger's teeth, 
1 can't spare a crumb." And when he found he could 
not force us to take any, he ate it all up. 

Indifference to the tooth prints was a perfectly 
reasonable sentiment, under the circumstances, and 
one in which we all would have shared, for we were 
wolfish enough to have eaten the "little nigger" himself. 
The Doctor didn't mind the little chap's tooth marks 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 75 

then but — he did afterwards. After he had been 
pacified with a square meal, the idea wasn't so pleas- 
ant, and though we often recalled the incident, after- 
wards, the Doctor could not remember this part of it. 
He remembered the piece of ash-cake, but, somehow, 
he could not be brought to recall the tooth marks in 
it. Not he ! 

It was about eleven o'clock when we passed Ver- 
diersville. Soon after, we turned down a road, which 
led over to the plank road on which A. P. Hil's col- 
umn was moving. Hour after hour all the morning, 
reports had come flying back along the columns, that 
our people, at the front, had seen nothing but Fed- 
eral Cavalry; hadn't been able to unearth any infantry 
at all. An impression began to get about that maybe 
after all, there had been a mistake, and that Grant's 
army was not in front of us. 

About this time, that impression was suddenly and 
entirely dispelled. A distinct rattle of musketry broke 
sharply on our ears, and we knew, at once, that we 
had found something, and, in fact, it was soon clear 
that we had found Federal infantry, enough and to 
spare. 

That sudden outbreak of musketry quickened 
every pulse, and every step too, in our columns. 
Harder than ever we pushed ahead, and as we 
advanced, the firing grew louder, and the volume 
heavier till it was a long roar. The long-roll beat in 



76 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

our marching columns, and some of the infantry brig- 
ades broke into the double quick, to the front, and we 
could see them heading oft, right and left into the 
woods. 
Marse We had now come to the edge of that forest and 

Way^of^ thicket-covered district, the "Wilderness of Spott- 
Making One svlvania." 

Equal to 

Three Grant had crossed the Rapidan into this tangled 

chaparral, and it is said he was very much surprised 
that Lee did not dispute the passage of the river. But 
"Ole Marse Robert" had cut too many eye teeth to do 
anything like that. He was far too deep a file, to stop 
his enemy from getting himself into "a fix." He knew 
that when Grant's great army got over there, they 
would be "entangled in the land, the wilderness would 
shut them in." 

In that wilderness, three men were not three times 
as many as one man. No ! no ! not at all ! Quite the 
reverse! Lee wouldn't lift a finger to keep Grant 
from gettinge into the wilderness, but quick as a flash 
he was, to keep him from getting out. This, was why 
he had been marching the legs off of us, rations or no 
rations. This, was why he couldn't wait for Long- 
street, but tore off with the men he had, to meet Grant 
and fight him, before he could disentangle himself 
from The Wilderness. We had got up in time; and 
into the chaparral our men plunged to get at the 
enemy, and out of it was now roaring back over our 
swift columns the musketry of the advance. As brig- 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 77 

ade after brigade dashed Into line of battle the roar 
swelled out grander, and more majestic, until It be- 
came a mighty roll of hoarse thunder, which made 
the air quiver again, and seemed to shake the very 
ground. The battle of The Wilderness was begun, 
in dead earnest. 

The crushing, pealing thunder kept up right along, 
almost unbroken, hour after hour, all through the 
long noon, and longer evening, until just before night. 
It slackened and died away. It was the most solemn 
sound I ever heard, or ever expect to hear, on earth. 
I never heard anything like It in any other battle. 
Nothing could be seen, no movements of troops, in 
sight, to distract attention, or rivet one's Interest on 
the varying fortunes of a battle-field. Only, — out of 
the dark woods, which covered all from sight, rolled 
upward heavy clouds of battle-smoke, and outward, 
that earth shaking thunder, now and then fiercely 
sharpened by the "rebel yell," — the scariest sound 
that ever split a human ear, — as our men sprang to 
the death grapple. 

We had pushed up along with the rest; but by and 
by our guns were ordered to halt, to let the infantry 
go by. Here, while we waited for them to pass, we 
saw the first effects of the fight. Just off the road 
there was a small open field containing a little farm- 
house and garden and apple orchard, where the cav- 
alry had been at work, that morning before we came 



78 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

up. Around the house and in the orchard lay ten 
dead Federal troops, three of our men, and a number 
of horses; all lying as they had fallen. One of the 
Federals was lying with one leg under his horse, and 
the other over him; both had, apparently, been in- 
stantly killed by the same ball, which had gone clear 
through the heads of both man and horse. They had 
fallen together, the man hardly moved from his nat- 
ural position in the saddle. Another had a sword 
thrust through his body, and two others, in their ter- 
ribly gashed heads, gave evidence that they had gone 
down under the sabre. The rest of them, and all 
three of our men, had been killed by balls. Not a 
living thing was seen about the place. 

We were called away from this ghastly scene by 
the guns starting again, and we moved on rapidly to 
the front. As we went, at a trot, one of the men, 
John Williams, who was sick with the heat and exhaus- 
tion of the trying march, and was sitting on the trail of 
the gun, suddenly fainted, and fell forward under the 
wheel. He was, fortunately, saved from instant death 
by a stone, just in front of which he fell. The pon- 
derous wheel, going so rapidly, struck the stone, and 
was bounded over his body, only bruising him a little. 
It was a close shave, but we were spared the loss of 
a dear comrade, and good soldier.' 

When we got up pretty close to the line of battle, 
we halted and then were ordered to pull out beside 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 79 

the road and wait for orders. Here we found a great An Infantry 

, I II- Batde 

many batteries parked, and we heard that it was, as 
yet, impossible to get artillery into action where the 
infantry was fighting. In fact, the battle of The Wil- 
derness was almost exclusively an I)ifa?itry fight. But 
few cannon shots were heard at all during the day; 
the guns could not be gotten through the thickets. We 
heard, at the time, that we had only been able to put 
in two guns, and the Federals, three, and that our 
people had taken two of them, and the other was 
withdrawn. Certainly we hardly heard at single shot 
during most of the fight. But we didn't know at the 
time the exemption we were to enjoy. It was a strange 
and unwonted sight, all those guns, around us, idle, 
with a battle going on. For the way General Lee 
fought his artillery was a caution to cannoneers. He 
always put them in, everywhere, and made the fullest 
use of them. We always expected, and we always 
got, our full share of any fighting that was going on. 
And to be idle here, while the musketry was rolling, 
was entirely a novel sensation. We were under a 
dropping fire, and we expected to go in every moment. 
A position which every old soldier will recognize as 
more trying than being in the thick of a fight. It was 
very far from soothing. 

When we had been waiting here a few minutes, 
Dr. Newton, since the Rev. John B. Newton of Monu- 
mental Church, Richmond, Va., afterwards Bishop 



8o FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Coadjutor of Virginia, but then the surgeon of the 
40th Virginia Infantry, rode by our guns, and 
recognizing several of us, boys, his kinsmen, stopped 
to spealv to us. After a few kind words, as he shook 
hands with us very warmly at parting, he pointed to 
his field hospital, hard by, and very blandly said, 
"Boys, I'll be right here, and I will be glad to do any- 
thing for you in my line." To fellows going, as we 
thought, right into battle, this was about the last kind 
of talk we wanted to hear. A doctor's offer of service 
in our situation, was full of ghastly suggestions. So 
his well-meaning proffer was met with opprobrious 
epithets, and indignant defiance. It was shouted to 
him in vigorous Anglo-Saxon, what we thought of 
doctors anyhow, and that if he didn't look sharp we'd 
fix him so he would need a doctor, himself, to patch 
him up. The Doctor rode off laughing at the storm 
his friendly remarks had raised. Never was a kind 
offer more ungraciously received. I suppose, how- 
ever, if any of us had got hurt just then, we would 
have been glad enough to fall in with the Doctor, 
and to have his skillful care. Fact is, soldiers are very 
like citizens — set light by the doctor when well, but 
mighty glad to see him when anything is the matter. 
The Doctor, and all his brother "saw-bones" soon 
had enough to do for other poor fellows, if not for 
us. Numbers of wounded men streamed past us, ask- 
ing the way to the hospitals, some, limping painfully 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS bl 

along, some, with arms in a sling, some, with blood 
streaming down over neck or face, some, helped along 
by a comrade, some, borne on stretchers. It was a 
battered looking procession; and yet, I suppose that 
people will be surprised to hear, it was as cheerful 
a lot of fellows, as you can imagine. Wounded men 
coming from under fire are, as a rule, cheerful, often 
jolly. Being able to get, honorably, from under fire, 
with the mark of manly service to show, is enough to 
make a fellow cheerful, even with a hole through him. 
Of course I am speaking now of the wounded who 
can walk, and are not utterly disabled. 

Eagerly we stopped those wounded men to ask 
how the fight was going. Their invariable account 
was that it was all right. They spoke about what 
heavy columns the enemy was putting in, but they 
said we were pressing them back, and every one spoke 
of the dreadful carnage of the Federals. One fellow 
said, after he was shot in the advancing line, he had 
to come back over a place, over which there had been 
very stubborn fighting, and which our men had car- 
ried, like a hurricane at last, and as he expressed it, 
"Dead Yankees were knee deep all over about four 
acres of ground." The blood was running down and 
dropping, very freely, off this man's arm, while he 
stood in the road and told us this. 

These accounts of the wounded men from the line 
of battle put us in good heart, which was not lessened 



82 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

by a long line of Federal prisoners being marched to 
the rear, and the assurance by one of the guard that 
there were "plenty more where these came from." 

And so at last this long exciting day wore away. 
As dark fell the firing ceased. We got some wood 
and made fires, and, pretty soon after, "old Tom 
Armistead," our Commissary Sergeant, rode up. His 
appearance was hailed with delight, as the promise of 
something to eat. These transports were destined to 
be moderated when Tom told what he had to say. 
He had ridden on from the wagons, far in the rear, 
and all he could get was a few crackers, and a small 
bag of wet brown sugar. This he had brought with 
him, across his horse. 

Each man got two crackers and one handful of 
sugar. This disappeared in a twinkling. And then 
we sat around the fires discussing the events of the 
day. One subject of general anxiety, I remember, 
was when Longstreet would be up. As well as things 
had gone this day, we all knew well, how much his 
Corps would be needed for tomorrow's work. It was 
generally regarded as certain that he would get up 
during the night, and we lay down to sleep around our 
guns confident that all was well for tomorrow. 

Next morning we were up early. I don't remem- 
ber that we had anything to eat, and as the getting 
anything to eat in those days made a deep impression 
on our minds, I infer that we didn't. However we 
got a wash, a small one. We did not always enjoy 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 83 

this refreshment; then had to be content with a "dry- 
polish" such as Mr. Squeers recommended to Nich- 
olas Nickelby at "Dotheboys Hall," when the pump 
froze. But on this occasion we had, with difficulty, 
secured one canteen of water between three of us, 
wherein we were better off than some of the others; 
The tin pan in which we luxuriated during winter 
quarters had been relegated to the wagon, both as 
inconvenient to carry, and as requiring too much 
water. It always took two to get a "campaign wash." 
One fellow poured a little water, out of the canteen, 
into his comrade's hands, with which he moistened his 
countenance, a little more poured over his soaped 
hands, and the deed was done. On this occasion when 
one canteen had to serve for three, and no more water 
was to be had, our ablutions were light; in fact, it was 
little more than a pantomime, in which we "went 
through the motions" of a wash. But we were afraid 
to leave the guns a minute, after daylight, for fear of 
a sudden movement to the front, so we had to do with 
what we had. 

Soon after this, our cares about all these smaller 
matters suddenly fell out of sight. That fierce musketry 
broke out again along the lines, in the woods, in front. 
It increased in fury, especially on the right. Very 
soon reports began to float back that the Federals 
were heavily overlapping A. P. Hill's right, and things 
looked dangerous. Then it was rumored that some 
of Hill's right regiments were beginning to give way, 



84 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

under the resistless weight of the columns hurled upon 
him and round his flank. We could quickly perceive 
this to be true by the sound of the firing, which came 
nearer to us and passed toward the left. This imme- 
diately threw our crowd into a fever of excitement; 
the idea of lying there, doing nothing, when our men 
were falling back, was intolerable. Every artillery 
man thought that if his battery could only get in, it 
would be all right. We knew what a difference it 
would instantly make, if all these silent guns could be 
sweeping the columns of the enemy. We would soon 
stop them, we thought! We just ached for orders to 
come but they did not. Still the news came, "impos- 
sible to get artillery in;" and loud and deep were the 
angry complaints of some, and curses of others, and 
great the disgust of all at our forced inaction. One fel- 
low near me, voiced the feelings of us all — "If we 
can't get in there, or Longstreet don't get here pretty 
quick, the devil will be to pay." 

Arrival of ^^ ^^^ midst of this anxious and high wrought 

the First feeling, an excited voice yelled out, "Look out down 
the road. Here they come!" We were driven nearly 
wild with excited joy, and enthusiasm by the blessed 
sight of Longstreet's advance division coming down 
the road at a double quick, at which pace, after the 
news of Hill's critical situation reached them, they 
had come for two miles and a half. The instant the 
head of his column was seen the cries resounded on 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 85 

every side, "Here's Longstreet. The old war horse 
is up at last. It's all right now." 

On, the swift columns came ! Crowding up to the 
road, on both sides, we yelled ourselves nearly dumb 
to cheer them as they swept by. Hearty were the 
greetings as we recognized acquaintances and friends 
and old battle comrades in the passing columns. Spe- 
cially did the "Howitzers" make the welkin ring when 
Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade passed. This was 
the brigade to which our battery had long been 
attached, to which we were greatly devoted, with 
whom we had often fought, and admired as one of 
the most splendid fighting corps in the army. And 
loud was the cheer the gallant Mississippians flung 
back to the "tlowitzers." 

Everything broke loose as General Longstreet in 
person rode past. Like a fine lady at a party, Long- 
street was often late in his arrival at the ball, but he 
always made a sensation and that of delight, when 
he got in, with the grand old First Corps, sweeping 
behind him, as his train. 

This was our own Corps, from which we had been 
separated for some months. The very sight of the 
gallant old veterans, as they poured on, was enough 
to make all hearts perfectly easy. Our feeling of 
relief was complete and as the Brigades disappeared 
into the woods in the direction of Hill's breaking 
right, where the thunder of their still heroic resistance 



86 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

to overwhelming odds was roaring, we all felt, "Thank. 
God! it's all right now! Longstreet is up!" 

And it was all right. The first brigades as they 
got up formed, and rushed right in, one after another, 
to check the advance of the enemy. And as they suc- 
cessively went in we could hear the musketry grow 
more angry and fierce. Before very long, a crashing 
peal of musketry broke out with a fury that made 
what we had been hearing before seem like pop- 
crackers. Our crowd quickly perceived that the sound 
was receding from us; at the same time the bullets, — 
which had been falling over among us entirely too 
lively to be pleasant to fellows who were not shoot- 
ing any themselves, — stopped coming. We knew 
what this meant; Longstreet was putting his Corps in, 
and they were driving the enemy. Soon, to confirm 
our ideas, lines of Federal prisoners, from Hancock's 
Corps, they told us, came by, and Longstreet's 
wounded began to pass. These fellows told us that 
our Corps had gone in like a whirlwind, had already 
recovered Hill's line, gone beyond it, and were forc- 
ing the Federals back. 

They said Hancock's Corps was doubled up, and 
being torn to pieces and they thought we would "bag 
the whole business." 

All this was very nice and we were expressing our 
delight in the usual way. Just then, an officer rode 
up who told us a bit of news, that made us feel more 
like tears than cheers, and put every fellow's heart 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 87 

into his mouth. He said that just before, General Lee The Love 
had come in an ace of being captured. A body of the inspired in 
enemy had pushed through a gap in our line and unex- *® ^^" 
pectedly come right upon the old General, who was 
quietly sitting upon his horse. That, these fellows 
could with perfect ease have taken, or shot him, but 
that he had quietly ridden off, and the enemy not 
knowing who it was, made no special effort to molest 
him. 

I wish you could have seen the appalled look that 
fell on the faces of the men, as they listened to this. 
Although the danger was past an hour ago, they were 
as pale and startled and shocked as if it were enact- 
ing then. The bare idea of anything happening to 
General Lee was enough to make a man sick, and I 
assure you it took all the starch out of us for a few 
minutes. 

I don't know how it was, but somehow, it never 
occurred to us that anything could happen to General 
Lee. Of course, we knew that he was often exposed, 
like the rest of us. We had seen him often enough 
under hot fire. And, by the way, I believe that the 
one only thing General Lee ever did, that the men in 
this army thought he ought not to do, was going 
under fire. We thought him perfect in motive, deed 
and judgment; he could do no wrong, could make no 
mistake, but this, — that he was too careless in the way 
he went about a battlefield. Three different times, 
during these very fights, at points of danger, he was 



88 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

urged to leave the spot, as it was "not the place for 
him." At last he said, "I wish I knew where my place 
is on the battlefield; wherever I go some one tells me 
that is not the place for me." 

But, he would go ! He wanted to see things for 
himself, and he wished his men to know, that he was 
looking after them, both seeing that they did their 
duty, and caring for them. And certainly, the sight 
of his beloved face was like the sun to his men for 
cheer and encouragement. Every man thought less 
of personal danger, and no man thought of failure 
after he had seen General Lee riding along the lines. 
Nobody will ever quite understand what that old man 
was to us, his soldiers! What absolute confidence we 
felt in him! What love and devotion we had, what 
enthusiastic admiration, what filial affection, we cher- 
ished for him. We loved him like a father, and 
thought about him as a devout old Roman thought 
of the God of War. Anything happen to him! It 
would have broken our hearts, for one thing, and, we 
could no more think of the "Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia" without General Lee, at its head, than we could 
picture the day without the sun shining in the heavens. 

An incident illustrating this feeling was taking 
place up in the front just about the time we were 
hearing the news of the General's narrow escape. 

As the Texan Brigade of Longstreet's Corps, just 
come up, dashed upon the heavy ranks of the Fed- 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 89 

erals, they passed General Lee with a rousing cheer. 
The old General, anxious and excited by the critical 
moment, thrilling with sympathy in their gallant bear- 
ing, started to ride in, with them, to the charge. It 
was told me the next day by some of the Texans, who 
witnessed it, that the instant the men, unaware of his 
presence with them before, saw the General along 
with them in that furious fire, they cried out in plead- 
ing tones — "Go back. General Lee. We swear we 
won't go on, if you don't go back. You shall not stay 
here in this fire ! We'll charge clear through the wil- 
derness if you will only go back." And they said, 
numbers of the men crowded about the General, and 
begged him, with tears, to return, and some caught 
hold of his feet, and some his bridle rein, and turned 
his horse round, and led him back a few steps, — all 
the time pleading with him. And then, the General 
seeing the feelings of his men, and that he was actually 
checking the charge by their anxiety for him, said, 
"I'll go, my men, if you will drive back those people," 
and he rode off, they said, with his head down, and 
they saw tears rolling down his cheeks. And they 
said, many of the men were sobbing aloud, overcome 
by this touching scene. Then with one yell, and the 
tears on their faces, those noble fellows hurled them- 
selves on the masses of the enemy like a thunderbolt. 
Not only did they stop the advance, but their resist- 
less fury swept all before it and they followed the 
broken Federals half a mile. They redeemed their 



90 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

promise to General Lee. Eight hundred of them 
went in, four hundred, only, came out. They covered 
with glory that day, not only themselves, who did such 
deeds, but their leader, who could inspire such feel- 
ings at such a moment in the hearts of these men. 
Half their number fell in that splendid charge, but — 
they saved the line, and they gloriously redeemed their 
promise to General Lee — "We'll do all you want, if 
you will only get out of fire." I cannot think of any- 
thing stronger than to say that — This General, and 
these soldiers, were worthy of each other. There is 
no higher praise! 

As the Brigades of Field's division, that followed 
the Texans, went in, a little incident took place, which 
illustrated the irrepressible spirit of fun which would 
break out everywhere, and which we often laughed 
at afterwards. General Anderson's Brigade was ahead, 
followed hard by Benning's Brigade, gallant Georgians 
all, and led by Brigadiers, of whom nothing better 
can be said, than that they were worthy to lead them. 
Among the men General Anderson had somehow got 
the soubriquet of "Tige" and General Benning enjoyed 
the equally respectful name of "Old Rock." On this 
occasion, Anderson was ahead, and as he moved out of 
sight into the woods, his men began to yell and shout 
like everything. One of Anderson's men, wounded, 
blood dropping from his elbow and running down his 
face, was coming out, when he met General Benning, 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 9 1 

at the head of his column, pushing in as hard as he 
could go. As this fellow passed him, taking advan- 
tage of his wound to have a little joke, he pointed to 
the woods in front and called out to the General, 
"Hurry up 'Old Rock,' 'Tige' has treed a pretty big 
coon he's got up there; you'd better hurry up or you 
won't get a smell." The brave old Benning, already 
hurrying himself nearly to death, flashed around on 
the daring speaker, and saw at once the streaming 
blood — "Confound that fellow's impudence," said the 
disgusted General. "I wish he wasn't wounded, if I 
wouldn't fix him." The fellow well knew that he could 
say what he pleased to anybody with that blood-cov- 
ered face. 

I think it was about eleven or twelve o'clock we 
heard that General Longstreet was badly wounded, 
and soon after he was brought to the rear, near our 
guns. With several of the others I went out and 
had some words with the men who were taking him 
out. To our grief, we heard them say, that his wound 
was very dangerous, probably fatal. He had fallen, 
up there in the woods, on the battle front, fighting his 
corps, in the full tide of victory. He had broken and 
doubled up Hancock's Corps, and driven it, with great 
slaughter back upon their works at the Brock road, 
and in such rout and confusion, that, as he said, he 
thought he had another "Bull Run" on them. And if 
he could have forced on that assault, and gotten fixed 
on the Brock road, it is thought that Grant's army 



92 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

would have been in great peril. But, just in the thick 
of it, he was mistaken, while out in front in the woods, 
for the enemy, and shot, by his own men. His fall 
was in almost every particular just like "Stonewall" 
Jackson's, in that same wilderness, one year before. 
Both were shot by their own men, at a critical mo- 
ment, in the midst of brilliant success, and in both 
cases their fall saved the enemy from irretrievable 
disaster. Longstreet's fall checked the attack, which 
after an inevitable delay of some hours, was resumed. 

of^Fed«-aT" ^"^ ^^^ enemy seeing his danger had time to recover. 

Dead and make disposition to meet it. 

Again, at four o'clock, after this interval of com- 
parative quiet, the thunder of battle crashed and 
rolled. General Lee, himself, fought Longstreet's 
Corps. The attack was fierce, obstinate, and fear- 
fully bloody. Wilkinson, of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, an eye-witness of this charge, says, in his book, 
"Recollections of a Private Soldier" : "The Confed- 
erate fire resembled the fury of hell in its intensity, 
and was deadly accurate" and that " the story of this 
fight could afterwards be read by the windrows of 
dead men." As to its effect he also says: "We could 
not check the Confederate advance and they forced 
us back, and back, and back. The charging Confed- 
erates broke through the left of the Ninth Corps and 
would have cut the army in twain, if not caught on 
the flank, and driven back. Massed for the attack on 
the Sixth Corps, they were skillfully launched, and 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 93 

ably led, and they struck with terrific violence against 
Shaler's and Seymour's Brigades, which were routed, 
with a loss of four thousand prisoners. The Confed- 
erates came within an ace of routing the Sixth Corps. 
Both their assaults along our line were dangerously 
near being successful." Such was the description of 
a brave enemy, an eye-witness of this assault. At 
last, as dark fell, the fire slackened and died out. 

The Battle of the Wilderness was done. Grant 
was pinned into the thickets, hardly able to stand 
Lee's attack, no thoroughfare to the front and twenty 
odd thousand of his men dead, wounded and gone. 
That was about the situation when dark fell on the 
6th of May! 

That night we drew off some distance to the right, 
and lay down, supperless, on the ground around our 
guns; it was very dark and cloudy and soon began to 
rain. There had been too much powder burnt around 
there during the last two days for it to stay clear. 
And so, as it always did, just after heavy firing, the 
clouds poured down water through the dark night. 
Lying out exposed on the untented ground, with only 
one blanket to cover with, we got soaking wet, and 
stayed so. 

The comfortless night gave way, at last, to a com- 
fortless day — May 7th — gloomy, lowering, and rain- 
ing, off and on, till late in the evening. During the 
morning, a little desultory firing was heard in front, 
and then all was quiet and still. We knew enough to 



94 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

know that Grant's push was over at this point. Some 
of us had gone up to look at the ground over which 
Longstreet had driven the enemy yesterday. We knew 
that the Federal troops could never be gotten back 
over that awful, corpse-covered ground to attack the 
men who had driven them. We knew we had to fight 
somewhere else, but where? By and by, talk began 
to circulate among the men that Spottsylvania, or 
around near Fredericksburg, might be the place. Of 
one thing we were all satisfied, that we would know 
soon enough. 

In this waiting and excited state of mind, the long, 
long, rainy day wore on, and dark fell again. We had 
managed to conjure up some very lonesome looking 
fires out of the wet wood lying about (fence rails 
were not attainable here in the wilderness), and were 
engaged in a hot dispute about where the next fight- 
ing was to be, which warmed and dried us more than 
the fires did, when "the winter of our discontent" was 
made "glorious summer," so to speak, by the news 
that the wagons had got up, and they were going to 
issue rations. Tom Armistead made this startling 
announcement in as bland, and matter of course a tone 
as if he were in the habit of giving us something to 
eat ever'j day, which he was not, by a great deal. 
Tom was the dearest fellow in the world, and the best 
Commissary in the army, and we all loved him. Many 
a time when, in the confusion of campaign, the wagon 



BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 95 

was empty, or was snowed in by an avalanche of 
wagons, far in the rear, he could be seen struggling 
up to the front with a bag of crackers, sugar, meat, 
anything that he had been able to lay hands on, across 
his horse, so that the boys should not starve entirely. 
Hunting us up through the woods, or along the battle 
line, he would ride in among us with his load, and a 
beaming face, that told how glad he was to have some- 
thing for us. And when, as too often it was, the 
whole Commissary business was "dead busted," our 
afflicted Commissary would tell us there was nothing, 
with such a rueful visage, that it made us sorry we 
did not have something to give him, and made us 
feel our own emptiness all the more, that it seemed 
to afflict him so. 

The present rations were quickly distributed, and 
as quickly devoured, and not a man was foundered by 
over-eating! Then we sat around the fires and dis- 
cussed the news that had been gathered from various 
sources. 



CHAPTER III 

BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 

It was just ten o'clock and each' man was looking 
around for the dryest spot to spread his blanket on, 
when a courier rode up, with pressing orders for us to 
get instantly on the march. In a few moments, we were 
tramping rapidly through the darkness, on a road that 
led, we knew not whither. We were, as we found 
out afterwards, leading the great race, that General 
Lee was making for Spottsylvania Court House to 
head off Grant in his efforts to get out of the Wilder- 
ness in his "push for Richmond." We were with the 
vanguard of the skillful movement, by which Long- 
street's Corps was marched entirely around Grant's 
left flank, to seize the strong line of the hills around 
.Spottsylvania Court House and hold it till the other 
two Corps could come to our aid. 

We marched all night, a hard, forced march over 
muddy roads, through the damp, close night. Soon 
after the start from our bivouac, a brigade of infan- 
try had filed into the road ahead of us, and we could 
hear, behind us on the road, though we could not see 
for the darkness, the sound of other troops march- 

96 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 97 

ing. The Brigade ahead of us, we soon found, to 
our gratification, to be Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, 
now under command of General Humphreys, since the 
gallant Barksdale fell at the head of his storming 
columns at Gettysburg. This was the Brigade to 
which we had belonged in the earlier organization of 
the artillery. It was a magnificent body of men, one 
of the most thorough fighting corps in the army, as 
they had showed a hundred times, on the bloodiest 
fields, and were soon, and often to show again. There 
was a very strong mutual attachment between the First 
Richmond Howitzers and Barksdale's Brigade, and 
we were much pleased to be with them on this march. 
We mingled with them, as we sped rapidly along, and 
exchanged greetings, and our several experiences since 
we had been separated. 

The morning of the 8th of May broke, foggy and 
lowering, and found us still moving swiftly along. The 
infantry halting for a rest, we passed on ahead, and 
for some time were marching by ourselves. I well 
recall the impressions of the scene around us on that 
early morning march. Our battery seemed all alone 
on a quiet country road. The birds were singing 
around us, and it seemed, to us, so sweet! Every- 
body was impressed by the music of those birds. As 
the old soldiers will remember, the note of a bird was 
a sound we rarely heard. The feathered songsters, 
no doubt, were frightened away, and it was often 



98 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

remarked, that we never saw birds in the neighbor- 
hood of camp. So we specially enjoyed the treat of 
hearing them, now and here, in their own quiet woods, 
where they had never been disturbed. All was quiet 
and still and peaceful as any rural scene could be. It 
seemed to us wondrous sweet and beautiful! All the 
men were strangely impressed by it. They talked of 
it to one another. It made our hearts soft, it brought 
to the mind of many of those weary, war-worn sol- 
diers, other quiet rural scenes, where lay their homes 
and dear ones, and to which this scene made their 
hearts go back, in tender memory, and loving imagi- 
nation. All the eyes did not stay dry as we passed 
along that road. We talked of this scene many a 
time long afterwards. And I expect some of the old 
"Howitzers" still remember that quiet Spottsylvania 
country road, winding through the woods, on that 
early Sunday morning, when the birds sang to us, as 
we hurried on to battle. 

Well ! the morning wore on, and so did we. By 
and by, the sun came out through the fog and clouds, 
and began to make it hot for us. The dampness of 
the earth made this an easy job. The sun got higher 
and hotter every minute. The way that close, sultry 
heat did roast us was pitiful. We would have "larded 
the lean earth as we walked along," except that hard 
bones and muscles of gaunt men didn't yield any "lard" 
to speak of. The breakfast hour was not observed, 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 99 

i. e., not with any ceremony. "Cracker nibbling on the 
fly" was all the visible reminder of that time-honored 
custom. We were not there to eat, but, to get to 
Spottsylvania Court House; and steps were more to 
that purpose than steaks, so we omitted the steaks, 
and put In the steps; and we put them In very fast, and 
were putting In a great many of them. It appeared to 
us. At last, just about twelve o'clock our road wound 
down to a stream, which I think was the Po, one of 
the head waters of the Mattaponi River, and then, 
we went up a very long hill, a bank, surmounted by a 
rail fence on the left side of the road, and the woods 
on the other. 

Just as we got to the top (our Battery happened stuart's 
just then to be ahead of all the troops, and was the Jl?™' , 

•^ '^ Thousand 

first of the columns to reach the spot), the road came Cavalry 
up to the level of the land on the left, which enabled 
us to see, what, though close by us, had been concealed 
by the high roadside bank. A farm gate opened Into 
a field, around a farmhouse and outbuildings, and 
there, covering that field was the whole of Fitz Lee's 
Division of Stuart's cavalry. These heroic fellows 
had for two days been fighting Warren's corps of 
Federal infantry, which General Grant had sent to 
seize this very line on which we had now arrived. 
They had fought, mostly dismounted, from hill to 
hill, from fence to fence, from tree to tree; and so 
obstinate was their resistance, and so skillful the dis- 



lOO FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

positions of the matchless Stuart, that some thirty 
thousand men had been forced to take about twenty- 
six hours to get seven or eight miles, by about forty- 
five hundred cavalry. But, it was incomparable cav- 
alry, and J. E. B. Stuart was handling it. It was 
some credit to that Corps to have marched any at 
all ! Thanks to the superb conduct of the cavalry. 
General Lee's movement had succeeded! We had 
beaten the Federal column, and were here, before 
them, on this much-coveted line, and meant to hold 
it, too. 

I note here in passing, that this Spottsylvania busi- 
ness was a "white day" for the cavalry. When the 
army came to know of what the cavalry had done, and 
how they had done it, there was a general outburst 
of admiration, — the recognition that brave men give 
to the brave. Stuart and his men were written higher 
than ever on the honor roll, and the whole army was 
ready to take off its hat to salute the cavalry. 

And, from that day, there was a marked change 
in the way the army thought and spoke of the cavalry; 
it took a distinctly different and higher position In the 
respect of the Army, for it had revealed itself in a new 
light; it had shown Itself signally possessed of the 
quality, that the Infantry and artillery naturally ad- 
mired most of all others — obstinacy In fight. 

As was natural, and highly desirable, each arm 
of the service had a very exalted idea of Its own 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 01 

importance and merit, as compared with the others. 
In fact the soldier of the "Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia" filled exactly the Duke of Marlborough's de- 
scription of the spirit of a good soldier. "He is a poor 
soldier," said the Duke, "who does not think himself 
as good and better than any other soldier of his own 
army, and three times as good as any man in the army 
of the enemy." That fitted our fellows "to a hair;" 
each Confederate soldier thought that way. 

It was not an unnatural or unreasonable conceit, 
considering the facts. It must be confessed that mod- 
esty as to their quality as soldiers was not the distin- 
guishing virtue of the men of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, but, it must be considered, in extenuation 
that their experience in war was by no means a good 
school for humility. An old Scotch woman once 
prayed, "Lord, gie us a gude conceit o' ourselves." 
There was a certain wisdom in the old woman's 
prayer! The Army of Northern Virginia soldiers 
had this "gude conceit o' themselves," without praying 
for it; certainly, if they did pray for it, their prayer 
was answered, "good measure, pressed down, shaken 
together, and running over." They had It ahnndanfly! 
And it was a tremendous element of power in their 
"make up" as soldiers. It made them the terrible 
fighters, that all the world knew they were. It largely 
explains their recorded deeds, and their matchless 
achievements. 



I02 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

For instance, here at the Wilderness! What was 
it that made thirty-five thousand men knowingly and 
cheerfully march to attack one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand men, and stick up to them, and fight them for 
twenty-four hours, without support or reinforcement? 
It was their good opinion of themselves; their superb 
confidence. They felt able with thirty-five thousand 
men, and General Lee, to meet one hundred and fifty 
thousand men, and hold them, till help came; and 
didn't they do it? 

Well! they did that kind of thing so often that 
they couldn't get humble, and they never have been 
able to get humble since. They try to — but — they 
can't! 

But I return from this digression to say, that the 
different Arms of the service had something of this 
same feeling, this good opinion of themselves, as com- 
pared with one another. Each one had many jokes 
on the others, and whenever they met, all sorts of 
"chaffing" went on. In all this, the infantry and artil- 
lery felt closer together, and were rather apt, when 
the occasion offered, to turn their combined guns on 
the cavalry. 

The general point of the jokes and gibes at the 
cavalry was their supposed tendency to be "scarce" 
when big fighting was going on. 

It wasn't that anybody doubted the usefulness of 
cavalry, but their usefulness was imagined to lie in 
other respects than fighting back the masses of the 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE IO3 

enemy. And, It wasn't that anybody supposed that 
the cavalry did not have plenty of fight in them, if 
they could get a chance. We knew that when they 
were at home they were the same stock as we were, 
and we believed, that if they were along with us, they 
would do as well ; but in the cavalry, well ! we didn't 
know! 

The leaders of the cavalry, Stuart, Hampton, 
Ashby, Fitz Lee and others, were heroes and house- 
hold names to the whole army. Their brilliant cour- 
age and dare-deviltry, their hairbreadth escapes, and 
thrilling adventures, their feats of skill, and grace 
were themes of pride and delight to us all. These 
cavaliers were the "darlings of the army," Still, the 
army would guy the cavalry every chance they got. 

It was said that Gen. D. H. Hill proposed to 
offer a "reward of Five Dollars, to anybody who 
could find a dead man with spurs on." And Gen. 
Jubal Early once, when impatient at the conduct of 
certain troops in his command threatened "if the cav- 
alry did not do better, he would put them in the 
army." 

One day, an infantry brigade on the march to 
Chancellorsville had halted to rest on the pike, near 
where a narrow road turned off. A cavalryman was 
seen approaching, in a fast gallop, plainly, in a great 
hurry. The infantry viewed his approach with great 
interest, prepared to salute him with neat and appro- 



I04 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

priate remarks as he passed, by way of making him 
lively. 

Just before he got to the head of the brigade he 
reached the narrow road and started up it. Instantly 
a dozen "infants" began to wave their arms excitedly, 
and shout in loud earnest voices — "Mister, stop there! 
don't go a step farther; for heaven's sake doti't go up 
that road." The trooper, startled by this appeal, and 
the warning gestures of the men, approaching him, 
pulled in his fast-going horse, and stopped, very im- 
patiently. He said in a sharp tone, "What is the 
matter, why mustn't I go up this road? Say quick, 
I'm in a big hurry." "Don't go, we beg you; you'll 
never come back alive." "Humph! is that so?" said 
this trooper (who had been near breaking a blood 
vessel in his impatience at being stopped, but cooled 
off a little, at this ominous remark) — "But what's 
ahead? what's the danger? The road seems quiet?" 
"Well, Sonny, that's the danger. Haven't you heard 
about it?" "Now, Sonny," was a term of endearment, 
which from an "infant" always exasperated the feel- 
ings of a cavalryman to the last degree; turned the 
milk of kindness in a horseman's breast into the sour- 
est clabber; and it instantly stirred up this trooper. 
"Look here men, don't fool with me. Tell me what 
is the danger up this road," "Well! we thought we 
ought to let you know, before you expose yourself. 
General Hill has offered a reward of Five Dollars 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE IO5 

for a dead man with spurs on, and it you go up that 
lonesome road some of these here sohlirrs will shoot 
you to get the reward." "Oh pshaw!" cried the dis- 
gusted victim, clapping spurs to his horse, and away 
he rode, leaving the grinning and delighted "infants" 
behind, and leaving, too, his opinion of them, and 
their joke, in language that needed no interpreter. 

This sort of thing was going on, all the time. The 
infantry and artillery zcoiild do it. With many, par- 
ticularly the artillery, who knew better, it was otily 
joking, the soldier-instinct to stir up ^/;/v passer-by. 
But with many, especially the infantry, who were not 
as much "up to snuft" as the artillery, these gibes at 
the cavalry expressed a serious, tho' mistaken idea, 
they had of them. Upon the advance of the enemy, 
of course, we were accustomed to see cavalrymen 
hurrying in from the outposts to the rear, to report. 
So the thoughtless infantry, not considering that this 
was "part of the large and general plan," got fixed in 
their minds an association between the two things, — 
the advance of the enemy, and, the rapid hurrying off 
to the rear of the cavalry, until they came to have the 
fixed idea, that the sight of the enemy ahi-ays made a 
cavalryman "hungry for solitude." l^hey reasoned 
that, as a mounted man was much better fixed for 
running away than a footman, it was, by so much, 
natural that he should run away, and was, by so much, 
the more likely to do it. 



Io6 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Also, our orders to move and to go Into battle 
were always brought by horsemen; so the horsemen 
were thought about as causing others to fight instead 
of doing it themselves. So, in short, it came to pass, 
that this innocent infantry had a dim sort of notion 
that the chief end of the cavalry was, in battle time, 
to run away and bring up other people to do the fight- 
ing, and in quiet time, to "range" for buttermilk and 
other delicacies, which the poor footmen never got. 
Hence the soubriquet of "buttermilk ranger" univer- 
sally applied to the cavalry by the army. 

But, I assure you, that all this was dispelled at 
once, and for good and all, at Spottsylvania. Here 
had these gallants gotten down off their horses. They 
hadn't run anywhere at all; didn't want anybody else 
to come, and fight for them. They had jumped into 
about five or six times their number of the flower of 
the Federal infantry. They met them front to front, 
and muzzle to muzzle. Of course they had to give 
back; but it was slowly, very slowly, and they made 
the enemy pay, in blood, for every step they gained. 
They had worried these Federals into a fever, and 
kept them fooling away nearly twenty-six hours of 
priceless time; and made Grant's plan fail, and made 
General Lee's plan succeed, and had secured the 
strong line for our defence. 

It was a piece of regular, obstinate, bloody, "bull- 
dog" work. We knew, well as we thought of our- 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE IO7 

selves, that not the staunchest brigade of our veteran 
"incomparable" infantry, or battery of our canister- 
shooting artillery, could have fought better, stood 
better, or achieved more, for the success of the cam- 
paign. We felt that General Lee, — that the whole 
army, — "owed the cavalry one," "several," in fact. 
The army, even the infantry, had come to know the 
cavalry, at last. Obstinacy, toughness, dogged refusal 
to be driven, was their test of manhood, and this test 
the cavalry had signally, and brilliantly met. Every- 
body was satisfied, the cavalry would do, they were 
"all right." We couldn't praise them enough, we 
were proud of them. The remark was even suffered 
to pass, as nothing to his discredit particularly, that 
our "Magnus Apollo," General Lee, himself, had 
once been in the cavalry, and no one resented it now. 
We knew that it was when he was younger than now. 
We, of the "Howitzers," knew very well what arm 
of the service, and what corps of that arm, the experi- 
enced old General would join, if he was enlisting in 
the Army of Northern Virginia, now, when he knew 
more than he did. Still! he had been a cavalryman; 
admit it! 

And we all admired the cavalry; honored the cav- 
alry; shouted for the cavalry, from that time! Occa- 
sionally, from force of habit, the infantry (the artil- 
lery never) would fall from grace at sight of a pass- 
ing cavalry column, and let fall little attentions, that 
sounded very like the old-time compliments, but they 



I08 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

were not meant that way. It was the soldier-instinct 
to salute pilgrims. Just as, on a village street, if a 
dog, of any degree, starts to run, every other dog in 
sight, or hearing, tears oft after him in pursuit, and 
if he can catch up, instantly attacks him, — not that he 
has anything against the fugitive, but, simply, because 
he is running by. The act of running past makes him 
the enemy of his kind. So, I think, the Confederate 
infantry assailed, with jokes and gibes, anybody in 
motion by their camp, or column. They had nothing 
against him; they attacked him because he was passing 
by. "It was their nature to." Of all living men, 
General Lee, alone, was sacred to them in this. The 
cavalry always had their full share, and never suffered 
for want of notice. 

This account of the false idea that prevailed, the 
fun that came of it, and the way it was dispelled, is 
part of the history of the time. It went to make up 
the life in the Army of Northern Virginia; it lives in 
the recollection of that good old time. No record of 
that old time would be complete without it. So I make 
no apology for falling into it, in this informal reminis- 
cence. 

At one o'clock on Sunday, the 8th of May, we reach- 
ed the top of the hill near Spottsylvania Court House 
and suddenly came upon Stuart's cavalry massed in the 
yard and field around a farmhouse. They had fin- 
ished their splendid fight, the van of the army was 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE IO9 

on the spot to relieve them. They had been with- 
drawn from confronting the enemy, and were now 
drawn up here, preparatory to starting off, to over- 
take Sheridan's raid toward Richmond; which they 
did, and, at "Yellow Tavern," two days after, many 
of them, the immortal Stuart at their head, died and 
saved Richmond. 

I have lingered at that farmhouse gate, at the top Greetings on 
of the hill, in this story, very much longer than we the Field of 
did in reality. In fact we didn't linger there at all. 
Didn't have a chance ! For, the moment we came in 
sight, at that gate leading into the farmhouse, an offi- 
cer came dashing out from amongst the troops of cav- 
alry, and galloped across the field toward us. The 
instant this horseman got out of the crowd, we recog- 
nized him. That long waving feather, the long 
auburn beard, that easy, graceful seat on the swift 
horse, — that was "J. E. B." Stuart, and nobody else! 
He rode up to the foremost group of us, and pulled 
up his horse. With bright, pleasant, smiling face, he 
returned our hearty salute with a touch of his hat, 
and a cheerful, "Good morning, boys! glad to see you. 
What troops are these?" "Richmond Howitzers, 
Longstreet's Corps." "Good! anybody else along?" 
"Infantry close behind." "Good! Well, boys, I'm 
very glad to see you. I've got a little job for you, 
right now, all waiting for you." Just then the Cap- 
tain rode up and saluted. "Captain," said the Gen- 
eral, saluting pleasantly, "Draw our guns through 



IIO FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

the gate and stop. I'll want you in ten minutes." And, 
away he galloped, back toward the cavalry. The guns 
pulled In through the gate and halted as they were, 
on the road leading to the house, close by the cavalry. 

We seized this sudden chance to see our old 
friends among the troopers. In every direction our 
fellows might be seen darting in among the horses, 
in search of our friends. Loud and hearty were the 
shouts of greeting as we recognized, or were seen by, 
those we sought or unexpectedly lighted on. Brothers, 
met and embraced. Friends greeted friends. Old 
schoolmates, who had, three years ago, parted at the 
schoolroom, locked eager, and loving hands, and asked 
after others, and told what they could. It was a 
delightful and touching scene, that meeting there on 
the edge of a bloody field! they coming out, we going 
in. There were jokes, and laughs, and cheerful words, 
but, the hand-clasps were very tight, the sudden up- 
rising of tender feelings, at the sight of faces, and 
the sound of voices, we had not seen nor heard for 
years, and that we might see and hear no more. The 
memories of home, or school, and boyhood, suddenly 
brought back, by the faces linked with them, made 
the tears come, and the words very kind, and the 
tones very gentle. 

I had several pleasant encounters. Among others, 
this: I heard a familiar voice sing out, "William 
Dame, my dear boy, what on earth are you doing 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE I I I 

here?" I eagerly turned, and in the figure hasting 
toward me with outstretched hand, — as soon as I 
could read between the lines of mud on him, — I recog- 
nized my dear old teacher, Jesse Jones. I loved him 
like an older brother, and was delighted to meet him. 
I had parted from him, that sad day, three years ago, 
when our school scattered to the war. I had seen him 
last, the quiet gentleman, the thoughtful teacher, the 
pale student, the pink of neatness. Here I find him a 
dashing officer of the Third Virginia Cav^alry, girt 
with saber and pistols, covered with mud from the 
crown of his head to the soles of his feet, and just rest- 
ing from the bloody work of the last two days. 

Just here, I had the great pleasure of falling in 
with my kinsman, and almost brother, Lieut. Robert 
Page, of the Third Virginia Cavalry, the older brother 
of my two comrades, and messmates. Carter and John 
Page. "Bob" was one of the "true blues" who had 
followed Stuart's feather from the start, and was going 
to follow it to the bitter end. I remember how, at 
the very first, he rode off to the war, from his home, 
"Locust Grove," in Cumberland County, Virginia, on 
his horse, "Goliath," with his company, the Cumber- 
land Troop. He had stuck to the front, been always 
up, and ever at his post, all the way through those 
three long, terrible years. He had deserved, and won 
his Lieutenancy, and commanded his regiment the 
last days of the war. He made an enviable record as 
a soldier for courage, faithfulness, and honor. None 



112 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



"Jeb" 
Stuart 

Assigns 
"A Little 
Job" 



better! At Appomattox he was surrendered. And 
having been forced to cease making war on mankind 
with the saber, he mended his grip, and continued to 
make war, with a far deadlier weapon of destruction, 
the spatula. 

All this was very pleasant, but it was very 
short. Time was up; ten minutes were out! We 
caught sight of General Stuart cantering across the 
field toward our guns, the bugle rang, and we tumbled 
out from amidst the cavalry, in short order, and took 
our posts around our respective guns. 

Stuart was in front of the column of guns talking 
to Captain McCarthy; next moment we moved. That 
is, the "Left Section" moved, the two twelve-pounder 
brass "Napoleons," the "Right Section" had two ten- 
pounder "Parrott" guns and stayed still. We did not 
rejoin them for several days. It was our "Napol- 
eons" that moved off, we took note of that! Also, we 
took very scant gun detachments, — all our men, but 
just enough to work the guns, stayed behind, — we 
took note of that too ! These two circumstances meant 
business to old artillerymen. We remarked as much, 
as we trotted beside the guns. "The little job" that 
General Stuart had alluded to, with his bland and 
seductive smile, and the merry twinkle of his eye, 
was, plainly, a very warm little job; however, away 
we went, "J. E. B." Stuart riding in iront of the guns, 
with the Captain, — apparently enjoying himself; we 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE II3 

reserved our opinion as to the enjoyableness of the 
occasion, till we should see more and be better able 
to judge. Two guns of "Callaway's" and two of 
"Carlton's" Batteries of our Battalion, — which had 
come up while we were disporting with our cavalry 
friends, back there, — had pulled in behind our two. 
The six guns followed the road which turned 
around the farmhouse, and ran on down toward the 
back of the farm. There were pine woods about, in 
different directions, the fields lying between. We saw 
nothing as yet, and wondered where we were going. 
We soon found out! About half a mile from the 
house, the farm road, which here ran along with pine 
woods on the left and a stretch of open field on the 
right, turned out toward the open ground. As we 
passed out from behind that point of woods, we saw 
"the elephant!" There, about six hundred yards from 
us were the Federals, seeming to cover the fields. 
There were lines of infantry, batteries, wagons, ambu- 
lances, ordnance trains massed all across the open 
ground. This was part of Warren's Corps, which had 
been pushing for the Spottsylvania line. They thought 
they had left the "Army of Northern Virginia" back 
yonder at the "Wilderness," and had nothing before 
them but cavalry, and they were halted, now, resting 
or eating, intending afterwards to advance, and occupy 
the line, which was back up behind us, where we had 
left the cavalry and our other guns. That line, so 
coveted, so important to them, that they had been 



114 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

marching, and fighting to gain, was not a mile off, in 
sight, in reach, secure now, as they thought. That 
thought was not only a delusion, it was a snare. They 
were never to reach it! and the "snare," I will explain 
very soon. 

As we thus suddenly came upon that sight, we 
stopped to look at the spectacle. It looked very blue, 
and I dare say, we looked a shade "blue" ourselves; 
for we could not see a Confederate anywhere, and we 
supposed we had no support whatever, though we 
were better off in this particular than we knew. And 
the idea of pitching into that host, with six unsup- 
ported guns, was not calming to the mind. Coming 
out from cover of the pines, back of a slight ridge 
that ran through the field, with a few sassafras bushes 
on it, we were not seen, and the Federals were in 
blissful ignorance of what was about to follow. We 
pulled diagonally across the field to a point, just back 
of the low ridge, and quietly went into position and 
unlimbered the guns. We pushed them, by hand, up 
so that the muzzles just looked clear over the ridge, 
which thus acted as a low work in our front, and 
proved a great protection. The field had been freshly 
plowed for corn, the wheels sunk into it, and the 
minute we tried to move the guns, by hand, with our 
small force, we saw what it was going to be, in action, 
with the sun blazing down. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE II5 

When all was ready, — guns pointed, limber, and 
caisson chests opened, — General Stuart said, waving 
his hand toward that swarming field of Federals, 
"Boys, I want you to knock that all to pieces for me. 
So go to work." And this was the last time we ever 
saw the superb hero. He rode, right from our guns, to 
his death at "Yellow Tavern" a day or two after. 
We have always remembered with the deepest inter- 
est, that the very last thing that glorious soldier, "J. 
E. B." Stuart, did in the Army of Northern Virginia 
was to put our guns into position, and give us orders; 
which we obeyed, to his entire satisfaction, I know, 
if he had seen it. 

The minute General Stuart had giv^en his order, 
and turned to ride away. Captain McCarthy, sitting 
on his horse, where he sat during the whole fight, 
looking as cool as the sun would let him, and far more 
unconcerned than if he had been going to dinner, sung 
out, "Section — commence firing." It was ours, the 
Fourth gun's turn to open the ball. We were all 
waiting around the guns for the word. 

The group, as it stood, is before my mind as 
vividly as then. Dan McCarthy, Sergt. Ned Stine, 
acting gunner (vice Tony Dibrell absent, sick, for 
some time past, who came tearing back, still sick, the 
moment he heard we were on the warpath) Ben Lam- 
bert, No. I ; Joe Bowen, No. 2 ; Beau Barnes, No. 3 ; 
W. M. Dame, No. 4; Bill Hardy, No. 5; Charlie 



Il6 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Pleasants, No. 6; Sam Vaden, No. 7; Watt Dibbrell, 
No. 8 ! The three drivers of the limber, six yards 
back, of the gun, dismounted, and holding their horses. 
Ellis, the lead driver, had scooped out the loose dirt, 
with his hands, and lay down, on his back, in the shal- 
low hole, holding the reins with his upstretched hands. 

The third gun was just to our right, the cannon- 
eers grouped around the guns, each man at his post. 
Travis Moncure, Sergeant, known and loved and hon- 
ored among us as "Monkey," always brave and true 
and smiling, even under fire, Harry Townsend, gun- 
ner; Gary Eggleston, No. i; Pres Ellyson, No. 2\ 

Denman, No. 3 ; Charlie Kinsolving, No. 

4; Charlie Harrington, No. 5; , No. 6; 

, No. 7 ; , No. 8 ; Captain 

McCarthy sitting his horse, just behind, and between 
the two guns. The other guns were a little to our left. 

All was ready; guns loaded and pointed, carefully, 
every man at his post, — feeling right solemn too, — 
and a dead stillness reigned. The Captain's steady 
voice rang out! As an echo to it, Dan McCarthy sung 
out "Fourth detachment commence firing, fire!" I 
gave the lanyard a jerk. A lurid spout of flame about 
ten feet long shot from the mouth of the old "Napo- 
leon," then, in the dead silence, a ringing, crashing roar, 
that sounded like the heavens were falling, and rolled 
a wrathful thunder far over the fields and echoing 
woods. Then became distinct, a savage, venomous 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE II7 

scream, along the track of the shell. This grew 
fainter, — died on our ear! We eagerly watched! 
Suddenly, right over the heads of the enemy, a flash of 
fire, a puff of snow-white smoke, which hung like a 
little cloud! We gave a yell of delight; our shell had 
gone right into the midst of the Federals, and burst 
beautifully. The ball was open! 

The instant our gun fired we could hear old Mon- 
cure sing out, "Third detachment, commence firing, 
fire!" and the Third piece rang out. The guns on 
the left joined in, lustily, and in a moment, those six 
guns were steadily roaring, and hurling a storm of 
shell upon the enemy. 

And now the fun began, and soon "grew fast and 
furious." Over in the Federal lines, taken by sur- 
prise, all was confusion, worse confounded. We could 
see men running wildly about, teamsters, jumping Into 
the saddle, and frantically lashing their horses, — 
wagons, ambulances, ordnance carts, battery forges, 
tearing furiously, in every direction. Several vehicles 
upset, and many teams, maddened by the lash, and 
the confusion, and bursting shells, dashing away uncon- 
trollable. We saw one wagon, flying like the wind, 
strike a stump, and thrown, team and all, a perfect 
wreck, on top of a low rail fence, crushing it down, 
and rolling over it. 

This was the only time I ever saw a big army 
wagon, and team, thrown over a fence. 



Il8 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

All that lively time they were having over among 
the enemy was very amusing to us ; we were highly 
delighted, and enjoyed it very much. Laughter, and 
jocular remarks on the scene were heard all about, 
as we worked the gun, and we did our best to keep 
up the show. 

Meanwhile, we were not deceived for a moment. 
Wild and furious as was the confusion, and running, 
over the way, we knew, well, it was the wagoners and 
"bomb-proof" people, who were doing the running, 
and stirring up the confusion. We knew they were 
not all running away. We had seen a good deal of 
artillery in that field, and we knew that we should 
soon hear from them. And we were not mistaken! 

In a few minutes the sound of our guns was sud- 
denly varied by a sharp, venomous screech, clap of 
thunder, right over our heads, followed by a ripping, 
tearing, splitting crash, that filled the air; a regular 
blood freezer. We knew that sound! . It was a burst- 
ing Parrott shell from a Federal gun ! And they had 
the range. 

The enemy had run out about eighteen, or twenty 
guns, and they let in, mad as hornets. Another shell, 
and another, and another, came screaming over us. 
Then they began to swarm; the air seemed full of 
them, — bursting shells, jagged fragments, balls out of 
case-shot, — it sounded like a thousand devils, shriek- 
ing in the air all about us. Then, the roaring of our 
guns, the heavy smoke, the sulphurous smell, the shak- 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 19 

ing of the ground under the thunder of the guns, — it 
was a fit place for devils to shriek in. 

And how hot it was ! Twenty guns, in full fire, 
can make it hot at the foot of the North Pole, and this 
was tiot the North Pole ! quite the reverse. In addi- 
tion to the battle heat, the sun was pouring down, hot 
as blazes; and the labor of working a rapidly firing 
"Napoleon" gun, with four men, in deeply plowed 
ground, and the strong excitement of battle — alto- 
gether, it was the hottest place I ever saw, or hope I 
shall ever see, in this world, or in the world to come. 
It nearly melted the marrow in our bones ! 

A persimmon sapling stood near our gun. It was 
trimmed, and chipped down, twig by twig, and limb 
by limb, by pieces of shell, until it was a lot of scraps 
scattered over the ground. Sam Vaden, as he passed 
me, with a shell, said "Dame, just look back over this 
field behind us. A mosquito couldn't fly across that 
field without getting hit." It looked so ! The dirt 
was being knocked up, wherever you looked, literally, 
by shower of balls, and shell fragments. It had the 
appearance of hail striking on the surface of water, 
only it wasn't cold. 

Well ! for three mortal hours this battle raged. 
They hammered us, and we hammered them. Occa- 
sionally, we saw a Federal caisson blown up, which 
refreshed us, and several of their guns ceased firing — 
disabled or cannoneers cleared out, we thought — and 



120 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

this refreshed us. We wished they would all blow up, 
and stop shooting. 

After we had been under fire sometime, with 
nobody hurt as yet, a case-shot burst in front of us, 
and Hardy, who had just brought up a shell, and 
was standing right by me, said, in his usual deliberate 
way, "Dame, I'm hit, and hit very hard, I am afraid." 
"Where are you hit?" I asked. He said, "I'm shot 
through the thigh, and the leg is numbed." I fired 
the gun, and jumped down to see what I could do for 
him. I found the place, and it looked ugly. There 
was a clean-cut hole right through his pants, to the 
thickest part of the thigh. I put my finger into the 
hole, and tore away the cloth to get at the wound, 
and found to my great, and his greater delight, that 
the ball had struck, and glanced. It had made a long 
black bruise and the pain was much greater than if 
it had gone through the leg. It had struck the great 
mass of muscle on the outer thigh, and the leg was, 
for the time, paralyzed and stiff as a poker. He was 
completely disabled. I said, "Bill, you must get 
right away from here." "But I can't walk a step." 
"Well crawl off on your hands and your good foot, 
not a man could leave the gun, to help you, and go 
out to the side so as to get soonest from under fire." 
So the poor fellow hobbled off, as best he could, all 
alone, amidst the laughter of the fellows at his novel 
locomotion. We could see the bullets knocking up 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 121 

the dirt all aound him, as he went slowly "hopping the 
clods" across the plowed fields. But he got off all 
right. Shortly after Hardy was struck, Charley Pleas- 
ants, of Richmond No. , at the Third gun, was 

shot through the thigh. A long and tedious wound 
which kept him disabled some months. Bill Hardy 
was back to duty in a day or so. One of the horses, 
the off horse of the wheel team of our limber, was 
hit, also. A piece of shell went into his head, between 
the right eye and ear, cutting the brow band of the 
bridle. The old horse, a character in the Battery, 
didn't seem to mind it; and he wore that piece of 
shell, in his head, until the end of the war. 

And, strange as it seemed, these were all our cas- 
ualties, under that hot fire; one man, seriously, and 
one slightly wounded and a horse slightly hurt. 

No! I forgot! There was one other casualty, — Wounding 
Robert Fulton Moore was mortally wounded, in the Fulton ^"^^ 
hat brim. And this gave rise to a most amusing scene. Moore 
Robert Fulton was a driver to the limber of the third 
gun. He was a large, soft, man, and was, by no 
means, characterized by soldierly bearing, or warlike 
sentiments. On the contrary, he was something of a 
"butt," and was always desperately unhappy under 
fire. He could dodge lower off the back of a horse 
at sound of a shell, than any man living. His miracu- 
lous feats, in this performance, afforded much diver- 
sion, whenever the guns went under fire, to us all, 
except his Sergeant, Moncure, who was very much 



122 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

ashamed of it. Still, in a general, feeble sort of way 
Robert Fulton had managed to keep up without any 
flagrant act of flinching from his post. On this occa- 
sion he had stood up better than usual. He stood 
holding his horses, and we noticed, with pleasure, that 
he was behaving very well under fire. But, it seems, 
his courage was only "hanging by the eyelids" so to 
speak. 

Presently a piece of shell came whizzing very close 
to his head. It cut away part of his hat brim, and 
alas! this was too much! Poor Robert Fulton went 
all to pieces, instantly. Completely demoralized, panic- 
stricken and frantic with terror, he dropped his reins, 
and struck out wildly. It seems, he had seen Ellis, 
our lead driver, scooping out the hole that has been 
referred to, and as this was the only hole of any kind 
in reach, he instinctively struck for it. Ellis was lying 
down in it, flat on his back, with his arms stretched 
upward, holding his horses. Robert Fulton rounded 
the limber, and threw himself down with all his 
weight, right upon, and completely covering up, Ellis, 
and stuck his face in the dirt over Ellis' shoulder, 
effectually pinning him down. Ellis was a fiery, ugly- 
tempered fellow, but as brave as Julius Caesar, and of 
all men in the battery he had the greatest contempt for 
Moore, and especially for his present conduct. Ellis, 
upon finding Moore on top of him, was in a perfect 
blaze of fury. The breath was nearly knocked out 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 123 

of him by Moore's weight, and he was mashed into 
the narrow hole, and embarrassed by the reins of his 
horses. He tried to throw Moore off, and couldn't. 
Then he broke loose! He yelled, and swore, and bit, 
and pulled Moore's hair, and socked his spurs into 
him, with both feet. He would have broken a blood 
vessel if McCarthy, assisted by Moncure, who had 
come to look after his driver, had not pulled Moore 
off, and taken him back to his post. 

Our attention was drawn to this scene by the noise. 
The terrific combat going on in that hole, the sight 
of Ellis' legs and arms, tossing wildly in the air, 
Moore not moving a muscle, but lying still, on top, 
the dust kicked up by the fray,— it was more than 
flesh and blood could stand, even under such a fire, 
and we could hardly work the guns for laughing. 
After the fight, when Moore had time to look into 
his injuries, he found that Ellis had nearly skinned 
him with his spurs. Some days after, we heard Robert 
Fulton exhibiting his torn hat brim to some passing 
acquaintance from his own neighborhood, as a trophy 
of his prowess in this fight. No doubt he preserves 
it as a sacred relic yet. 

In this fight, necessity, the mother of invention, a Useful 
put us up to a device that served us well here, and Discovery 
that we made fullest use of, in every fight we had 
afterwards. When we had kept up that rapid fire, 
with a scant gun detachment, in plowed ground, and 



124 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

under a hot sun, for an hour, we were nearly exhausted. 
After Hardy was wounded, and left us, it was still 
worse. The hardest labor, and what took most time, 
was running up the guns from the recoil. We had 
stopped a moment to rest, and let the gun cool a little, 
and were discussing the difficulties, when the idea 
occurred to us. There was an old rail fence near by. 
Somebody said "let's get some rails and chock the 
wheels to keep them from running back." This struck 
us all as good, and in an instant we had piled up rails 
behind the wheels as high as the trail would allow. 
The effect was, that when the gun fired it simply 
jerked back against this rail pile, and rested in its 
place, and so we were saved all the time and labor of 
running up. We found that we could fire three or 
four times as rapidly, in this way. So that a chocked 
gun was equal to four in a fight. We found this sim- 
ple device of immense service ! We were told by the 
knowing ones that we ran the greatest possible danger. 
The ordnance people said that if a gun was not 
allowed to recoil it would certainly burst. But we 
didn't mind ! A device that saved so much labor, and 
enabled us to deliver such an extraordinarily effective 
fire on the battlefield, we were bound to try. We 
found it acted beautifully. We then knew the guns 
wouldn't burst for we had tried it. 

We used it afterward in every fight. The instant 
we were ordered into position, two or three cannon- 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 25 

eers would rush off and get rails, or a log or two, to 
chock the guns. And on two or three very desperate 
emergencies, during this campaign, this device enabled 
us to render very important service. It made a bat- 
tery equal to a battalion, and a good many other bat- 
teries took it up, and used it. I believe it added 
greatly to the effectiveness of our artillery in the close- 
range fighting of this campaign 

Well ! even with this relief, the labor of working 
our guns in this furious and prolonged fight was fear- 
ful! At last the welcome order, "Section cease firing" 
was given. We limbered up, and drew the guns a 
short distance to the side, out of the line of fire, and 
utterly exhausted, we cannoneers, threw ourselves 
right down on the plowed ground beside the guns, and 
slept like the dead. 

In the meantime, while we had been fighting out 
in that field, events were taking place near us, of which 
we, absorbed in the work before us and deafened by 
the roar of our guns, had taken little notice at the 
time. As had been described, there was a body of 
woods some distance off to our right, and another, to 
our left. When we went into position we had not 
seen any of our troops, and did not know of the pres- 
ence of any, near us. We thought we were without 
support, but as I intimated some time back, we were 
better off than we knew. 

It seems, that before we came on the ground, 
Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, which had been 



126 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

marching behind us, had filed off the road, and while 
Barksdale's we were up on the hill with the cavalry, had quietly, 
Mississippi ^jjj silently passed into that body of woods to our 

Lreeper ^ r ] 

right, unseen by the enemy. Along the front edge of 
that wood ran an old rail fence, covered all over with 
the luxuriant vine known as "Virginia Creeper." Wide 
open fields extending in front. Soon, the ground be- 
hind that fence was covered with another sort of 
"creeper," not as good a "runner" as that on the fence, 
nor as "green," but just as tough of fibre, and as hard 
to "hold on" when it had once fixed itself, — the 
'^Mississippi Creeper." Silently, as ghosts, the Brig- 
ade glided in behind that fence, and lay low, and 
waited. Right here, was where the Federals' idea of 
quietly occupying the Spottsylvania line was going to 
prove a snare. They had not the dimmest suspicion 
that we were ahead of them, and between them and 
that line. They came on, with guileless confidence, 
and walked right into trouble. Presently, a line of 
battle with columns of troops behind came marching 
across the fields upon the concealed Mississippians. 
Nearer and nearer they came, unsuspecting any dan- 
ger, till they got nearly up to the fence. One man 
had actually thrown his leg over the rail to mount. 
Suddenly! as lightning out of a clear sky, a blinding 
sheet of flame flashed into their very faces. Then, 
after one volley, swiftly came the dreadful, venomous 
roll of musketry, the Mississippians loading and firing 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 27 

"at will," every man as fast as he could. It was just 
as if "the angel of death spread his wings to the blast 
and breathed in the face of the foe as he passed." 

That withering fire tore the ranks of that Divis- 
ion to pieces. It didn't take those fellows half a sec- 
ond to decide what to do. With yells of dismay, they 
charged back, out of that hornet's nest, as if the devil 
was after them. In headlong rout, they rushed wildly 
back across the fields, and disappeared in the woods 
beyond. 

They left four hundred and two of their num- 
ber in front of that fence, and before the fugitives 
got out of range, their General of Division, General 
Robinson, was seriously wounded. 

Some of our men went out among the Federal 
wounded to do what they could for their relief. An 
officer of a Mississippi Regiment came upon a Fed- 
tral Colonel who lay to all appearance mortally 
wounded, and gave him a drink of water, and did 
what else he could for his comfort. The Federal 
took out a fine gold watch, and said, "Here is a watch 
that I value very highly. You have been very kind 
to me, and I would like you to have it, as I am going 
to die. If I should get over this, and send to you for 
it you will let me have it, if not, I want you to keep 
it. But," he said sadly, "my wound is mortal, I 
am obliged to die." The Mississippian left him, and 
went back to his post, supposing him dead. 



128 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Many years after the war, the Mississippi officer 
was in Baltimore at Barnum's Hotel. One day, he 
got into casual talk with a gentleman, at dinner, and, 
as he seemed to be a good fellow, they smoked their 
cigars together after dinner, and continued their con- 
versation. By and by they got on the war. It came 
out, that both of them had served, and on opposite 
sides. I'lnaiiy, in telling some particular incidents of 
his experience, the Federal soldier described this very 
light, his being, as he thougiit mortally wounded, the 
kindness shown him by a Confederate officer, and his 
gift to him, of his watch. The Southern man said, 
"What is your name?" "Col. , of Robin- 
son's Division," he replied. "Can you be the man? 
Ha\e I struck you at last?" cried the ex-Confederate. 
"I\c got your watch, and here it is, with your name 
engraved in it." 
Ker.shnw'8 1^ was a singular incident, that these two should 
')l""'''. meet again sol I'he meeting was most cordial; the 
"Rice Birds" Federal was delighted to get his watch again, made 
doubly valuable by so strange a history. 

While this bloody episode was enacting by the 
Mississippi Brigade, in the woods to our right, an 
almost exactly similar scene was going on, in the 
woods to our left. A portion of Kershaw's South 
Carolina Brigade was unwittingly stumbled upon by 
"Griffin's" Division in the pines. Another complete 
ambuscade! The South Carolinians suddenly sprang 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 29 

up before the Federals, let them have it, broke and 
routed them, and killed, and wounded eighty-seven of 
them. Our loss was one man. Things were so sud- 
den, so close here, that one of Kershaw's men killed 
a Federal soldier, and wounded another with an axe 
he happened to have in his hand. 

These first efforts of "Warren's" Corps that had 
gotten up near the Spottsylvania line, "just in time to 
be too late," are thus described by Swinton, the admir- 
able historian of the "Army of the Potomac." (,Swin- 
ton's "Army of the Potomac," p. 443) : 

"Finally," he says, "the column (Warren's) 
"emerged from the woods into a clearing, two miles 
"north of Spottsylvania Court House. Forming in 
"line, Robinson's Division advanced over the plain. 
"Thus far, only Stuart's dismounted troops had been 
"encountered, and no other opposition was antici- 
"pated; but when half way across the field, and on 
"the point of rising the crest, the troops were met by 
"a savage musketry fire from infantry. Owing to 
"their severe experience in the Wilderness, and the 
"night march, without rest, the men were in an excited, 
"and almost frightened, condition, and the tendency 
"to stampede was so great that General Warren had 
"been compelled to go in front of the leading Brigade, 
"When, therefore, they received a fire in front, from 
"the redoubtable foe they had left in the Wilderness, 
"the line wavered, and fell back in some confusion. 
"General Robinson was at the same time severely 



130 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

"wounded, which left the troops without their com- 
"mander at a critical moment, and they were with 
"some difficulty rallied and reformed in the woods 
"back of the open plain. Griffin's Division, which 
"advanced on the right of Robinson, soon afterward 
"received the same fire with a like result." 

It seems then, that it was Robinson's Division that 
the little Mississippi Brigade sent to the right about, 
and it was Griffin's Division, who scared themselves 
nearly into fits, by flushing Kershaw's "rice-birds," in 
the pines. It was a little hard on these "excited and 
almost frightened" men of Warren's. The memory 
of the fearful shaking up they had got, day before 
yesterday, was so fresh in their minds that "General 
Warren himself, the Corps Commander, had to go 
in front of the leading Brigade" to quiet their nerves, 
even when they thought they were advancing upon a 
few dismounted troops. They thought, — a little com- 
fort in this, — that, at least, all those terrible fellows 
of the Army of Northern Virginia were far behind 
them. And — to meet them here, still, in front! It 
must be confessed it was hard! It was a very sad 
surprise. 

It is said that General Grant's strained relations 
with General Warren came of Warren's conduct of 
this move, to seize the Spottsylvania line. He found 
great fault with his failure. But, perhaps he was a 
little hard on Warrren. What could Warren do? 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 13I 

His men were demoralized, "excited, almost fright- 
ened, tending to stampede, needing the Corps Gen- 
eral to go in front," and stopping to dine, instead of 
pushing on to seize the line. They had to meet men 
who were not particularly excited, were not at all 
frightened and had not the least tendency to stam- 
pede; in fact, were in the best of spirits, perfectly con- 
jfident of victory, and did not need a corporal to go in 
front of them, gaunt, hungry, cool fellows, who never 
counted noses — in a fight! 

It was too much to expect Warren, with men like 
his, to go anywhere, or take anything, when men like 
these others were in the way. Grant was too hard on 
Warren! If it took a Corps Commander, going in 
front, to encourage them along to advance upon a few 
troopers. I hardly think that Generals Grant and 
Meade, and President Lincoln, and Secretary Stanton, 
all together, — going in front, could have got them up, 
if they had known who was actually ahead. 

However that may be, the object of our rapid all- 
night march, and of our venturesome stand, out here, 
in front of the Spottsylvania line, was accomplished ! 
The stir up we gave them with that long artillery fire, 
and the savage and bloody repulses of two of their 
divisions made them more nervous than they were 
before. They spent some time considering who it 
could be in their front, and considering what to do. 
Later on, two more Divisions advanced, and our two 
Brigades and our guns retired. 



132 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Our work was done ! While we had been out in 
front amusing the enemy, and keeping them easy, the 
Brigades of Longstreet's Corps had been rapidly com- 
ing up, and taking position on the all-important line. 
We now had a sure enough line of battle holding it. 
And night was falling; the enemy out in front had 
stopped, and gone to intrenching, instead of pushing 
on. We knew that during that night our people, Ewell 
and Hill, would be up. All were safe! We slept the 
sleep of the weary. So ended the 8th of May. It was 
a pretty full day for us ! 

I don't remember anything at all about the early 
morning of the next day, the 9th. We were dread- 
fully tired, and I suppose we slept late, and then 
lounged about, with nothing to do, yet, in a listless, 
stupid state. Everything was quiet around us, and 
nothing to attract atention, or fix it in mind. About 
mid-day, I recollect noticing bodies of troops, a regi- 
ment, a brigade, or two, moving about, here and 
there, in various directions. We heard that Ewell's 
and Hill's Corps had come up, and these troops we 
saw, were taking their way leisurely, along, to the 
various position on the line of battle. 

In the afternoon, about four or five o'clock, our 
guns, the "Napoleon" Section, moved off to take our 
destined position on the line. We followed a farm 
road, off toward the left, and presently came down 
into quite a decided hollow, through which ran a little 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 33 

Stream of water. Here we halted! The ground 
before us rose into a low short hill. Along the ridge 
of that hill ran the proposed line of battle, and there 
was the position for which we were making. There 
was quite a lively picket fire going on, in different 
directions, and right over the hill, behind which we 
were, an occasional shell could be heard screeching 
about, here and there. Several passed over us, high 
above our heads, and away to the rear. Federal 
Artillery lazily feehng about to provoke a reply, and 
find out where somebody was. They felt lonesome, 
perhaps ! It was a calm, sweet sunlit May evening. 

In order not to expose us longer than necessary to Feeling 
this fire of the pickets, Lieutenant Anderson, com- Pulses 
manding this "Section," went up on the hill, to select 
exact position for the guns, so that they might be 
promptly placed, when we went up. While he was up 
there reconnoitering, we lay down on the ground, and 
waited, and talked. The bullets dropped over, near, 
and among us, now and then, and we knew, that the 
moment we went up a few steps, on the hill, we would 
be a mark for sharp-shooters, a particularly unpleas- 
ant situation for artillery. But we tried to forget all 
this, and be as happy and seem as careless as we could. 
And we would have gotten along very well if let alone. 
But, there was a dreadful, dirty, snuffy, spectacled old 
Irishman, named Robert Close, a driver, who took 
this interval to amuse himself. He would ask us "how 
we felt," and he came around to most of us, young 



134 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

fellows, and asked us to let him feel our pulse, and 
see if we were at all excited, or scared; and he would 
put his hand on our hearts, to see if they were beat- 
ing regularly enough. And he would call out the 
result of his investigation in each case, — the other fel- 
lows all sitting around, and eagerly waiting his report. 
Nobody can tell what a dreadful trial this simple thing 
was ! When just going under fire — and indeed already 
under some fire — to have your heart and your pulse 
felt, and reported on to a waiting crowd of comrades ! 
But, all of us youngsters had to undergo it! That 
cruel, old scoundrel went round to every one of the 
youngsters. It was an unspeakable humiliation for 
a can)wucer to be thus fingered by a driver, but what 
could we do ? Not a thing ! 

We would have liked to knock the old rascal's 
head off, but, not one of us would have dared to object 
to that pulse feeling, and we in turn meekly held out 
our wrists, and tried to look happy and amused — and 
made a dismal failure of it. Old Close was as brave, 
himself, as a lion. He had as soon go in a fight as 
not; a little sooner! When balls swarmed around, he 
didn't care a bit. He was in a position to do this 
thing. But it was suffering to us. Each man waited, 
with anxious heart, for his turn to come, for old Close 
to "pass upon his condition." Those whom he ap- 
proved, were pleased to death, and those whom he 
didn't, hated him from that time. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 35 

I honestly believe that old Irishman gave me the 
worst scare I had in that campaign, and I am sure 
that a compliment, on the field, from General Long- 
street himself, would not Lave pleased me more, than 
that snuffy old fellow's verdict, after feeling my pulse 
that I "would do all right." It was quite a curious 
scene altogether! 

In a few minutes Lieutenant Anderson came down 

and ordered us forward. He told us "the sharp- ^hf'"« *® 
... ,. , „ , Fight Was 

shooters were makmg it a little warm up there. Hottest 

When the guns got to the top of the rise, they must 
go at a trot to their positions, the sooner to get the 
horses from under fir£. Twenty or thirty steps 
brought us to the top of the sharp little ascent. 
Here we found a few of our sharp-shooters exchang- 
ing compliments with the enemy, and the balls were 
knocking up the dirt, and whistling around. I was 
interested in watching one of our fellows. He was 
squatting down, holding his rifle ready. A Federal 
sharp-shooter, whom we could not see, was cracking 
at him. Three times a ball struck right by him, and 
came whizzing by us. He kept still, and patiently bided 
his time. Suddenly, he threw up his rifle and fired, 
and then exclaimed "Well! I got you anyhow." The 
balls stopped coming. This man said that the concealed 
Federal sharp-shooter had been shooting at him for 
some time and he had been waiting for him. At last, 
catching sight of a head rising from behind a bush, 
he got his chance, as we saw, and dropped his man. 



136 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Our guns were placed in their position, selected for 
them on the line, and the horses sent back to the rear. 

Our position here was right on the infantry line 
of battle. That is, on that line the infantry after- 
wards took. For when we got on the spot, there was 
no infantry there, — nothing except the sharp-shooters, 
already referred to. The line was traced by a con- 
tinuous pile of dirt thrown up, I don't know by whom, 
before we got on the ground. I suppose the engineers 
had it done as a guide to the troops, in taking position. 

The position our guns now took, grew to be very 
familiar ground to us, and remains very memorable. 
On this spot we stayed, and fought our part in the 
Spottsylvania battles. On this spot we saw many 
bloody sights, and witnessed many heroic scenes, and 
had many thrilling experiences. The incidents of 
those days spent there, in nearly all their details, are 
indelibly impressed on my memory, and are as fresh as 
if they happened yesterday. 

We stood on a low ridge which rose gradually 
to the right. To the left, after running level for fifty 
yards, the ground fell rapidly away, until it sank down 
into the valley of a little brook, one hundred and fifty 
yards from us. Off to the left, in front, stretched a 
large body of woods. To the right, in front, stood 
a body of thick pines coming up to within two or 
three hundred yards of us, its edge running along to 
the right about that distance parallel with our line. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 37 

Directly in front of us, the ground, — cleared fields 
about three or four hundred yards wide, — sloped gen- 
tly away down to a stream, and beyond, sloped gently 
upward to the top of the hill, on which stood a farm- 
house, and buildings. That hill was considerably 
higher than our position, and commanded it. That 
hill-top was about one-half to three-quarters of a 
mile from us. 

All along our front, in the bottom, ran a little 
stream; the ground, on either side, in our immediate 
front, was swampy, and thickly covered with low 
swamp growth. That soft ground saved us a good 
many hard knocks we had plenty as it was! Behind 
us, our cleared ground ran back, very gently sloping, 
almost level, some thirty or forty yards, and then, the 
hill fell sharply down, some twenty yards to the little 
brook, which ran along the hollow! This sharp bank, 
facing away from the enemy, and this stream, pro- 
tected by it, and so near us, proved a great comfort 
to us. It also was of great service as a covered way, 
by which troops and supplies {ammunition, while there, 
it did not seem to be considered necessary for us to 
have any other supplies) were able to approach the 
line. Once it proved of vital use as a cover behind 
which a broken Brigade was able to rally, and save 
the line. 

Exactly back of us, forty yards off, and covering 
that steep bank at this one point, stood a body of 
large, tall trees, — pines and others, occupying half 



138 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

an acre. And in that wood, under the bank, some of 
the fellows dug holes, and in them they built fires 
which, by one or another, were kept up all the time. 
At these fires, — quite effectually protected from shot 
and shell and bullets, though within forty yards of the 
line of battle, a fellow could cook anything he hap- 
pened, by accident, to have, or slip back from the 
works, now and then, when not engaged at the guns, 
warm himself and stand up straight, and stretch his 
legs and back, without the iminent risk of being bored 
by a sharp-shooter; which makes a stretch unsatis- 
factory. 

Just at the point where we were posted, the line 
left the ridge, and dipping a little, on the front face 
of the slope, ran along about parallel with the ridge. 
My gun, "Number Four," stood exactly at the point 
where the line declined in front of the ridge, and so, 
was exactly in the infantry line. The "3d gun" was 
some ten yards to our left, on the ridge seven or eight 
yards back of the line, and could fire over it to the 
front. It had its own separate work. 

It was about sunset when we got to our position. 
We unlimbered our guns, and ran them up close to 
the bank of dirt, about two feet high, which we found 
there, thinking that in case of a row, that would be 
some little protection. However, things seemed quiet. 
We couldn't see any enemy from where we stood, 
didn't know whether any force was near us. And 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 39 

after we placed our guns, we strolled around, and 
looked about us, and were disposing ourselves for a 
quiet night, and a good sleep, which we needed badly. 

Just then somebody, I think it was Lieutenant An- 
derson, who had walked to the left, some distance, 
where he could see around the point of pine woods to 
our right, up on the hill, came back with some news 
very interesting to us, if not to our advantage. He 
said that, just beyond these woods up on the hill, not 
over five or six hundred yards from us, there was a 
lot of Federal artillery. He saw them plainly. They 
were in position. He counted twelve guns, and was 
sure there were others, farther around, which he could 
not see for the woods. At least six of those, in sight, 
he was certain were twenty-pounder Parrotts. These 
guns, he said, commanded our position, and while the 
enemy had not yet seen us, for the treetops between, 
they soon would; and anyhow, the moment we fired a 
shot, and disclosed our position, we would catch it. 
There were enough heavy guns bearing down on us 
to sweep us off the face of the earth, unless we were 
protected. If daylight found us unfortified we couldn't 
stay there, so we had better go to throwing dirt. 

Here was nice news! Our two Napoleons, right Against 
under the muzzles of twelve or more rifled cannon, Heavy Odds 

at fort 

and SIX twenty-pounder Parrotts, and with no works ! Dodge" 
This was pleasant advice to tired and sleepy men, who 
wanted to go to bed. But such were the facts, and 
as we never had left a position under fire, and had 



140 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

come to stay, and were certainly going to stay, we 
went to throwing dirt. 

We went to work, to raise and thicken the little 
bank already there, in front of our gun, and to build 
a short "traverse" to the right, for protection from 
enfilade fire. We worked all night, six of us, and by 
morning we had a slight and rough artillery work, 
with an embrasure for the gun; the whole thing about 
four feet high, and two and one-half feet thick, at the 
top. It was the best that could be done by six, tired, 
and hungry fellows, all young boys, working with two 
picks and three shovels through a short night. Such 
as it was, we fought behind it, all through the Spottsyl- 
vania battles, and it stood some heavy battering. This 
gem of engineering skill, — by reason of the pretty 
constant courtesies we felt it polite to pay to the un- 
ceasing attentions of our friends, the enemy, for the 
next six days, in the shape of shells and bullets, we 
called "Fort Dodge." 

Just here, I take occasion to correct a very wrong 
impression about the field works, the "Army of North- 
ern Virginia" fought behind, in this campaign. All 
the Federal writers who have written about these bat- 
tles, speak of our works as "formidable earthworks," 
"powerful fortifications," "impregnable lines;" such 
works as no troops could be expected to take, and 
any troops could be expected to hold. 

Now about the parts of the line distant from us, 
I couldn't speak so certainly, though I am sure they 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE I4I 

were all very much the same, but about the works all 
along our part of the line I can speak with exactness 
and certainty. I saw them, I helped, with my own 
hands, to make them. I fought behind them. I was 
often on top of them, and both sides of them. I know 
all about them. I got a good deal of the mud off them 
on me, — (not for purposes of personal fortification, 
however). 

Our "works" were, a single line of earth, about 
four feet high, and three to five feet thick. It had 
no ditch or obstructions in front. It was nothing more 
than a little heavier line of "rifle pits." There was no 
physical difficulty in men walking right over that 
bank! I did it often myself, saw many others do it, 
and twice, saw a line of Federal troops walk over it, 
and then saw them walk back over it, with the greatest 
ease, at the rate of forty miles an hour; i. e., except -'Sticky" Mud 
those whom we had persuaded to stay with us, and ??^ ^^^ 
those whom the angels were carrying to Abraham's "Sticky" 
bosom, at a still swifter rate. Works they could go 
over like that couldn't have been much obstacle ! 
They couldn't have made better time on a dead level. 

Such were our works actually! And still, they 
seemed to "loom largely" to the people in front. I 
wonder what could have given them such an exag- 
gerated idea of the strength of those modest little 
works? I wonder if it could have been the men behind 
them? There were not a great many of these men. 
It was a very thin gray line along there, back of a 



142 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

thin, red line of clay. But these lines stuck together 
very hard, and were very hard indeed to separate. 
The red clay was "sticky" and the men were just as 
"sticky." And, as the two lines stuck together so 
closely, it made the whole very strong indeed. Cer- 
tainly, it seems they gave to those who tried to force 
them apart, an impression of great strength ! 

Yes, it must have been the men. A story In point, 
comes to my aid here. A handsome, well-dressed lady 
sweeps with a great air, past two street boys. They 
are much struck. "My eye, Jim, but ain't that a stun- 
ning dress?" Says Jim, with a superior air, "Oh get 
out. Bill, the dress ain't no great shakes; it's the wofnatt 
in it that makes it so 'killing.' " That was the way 
with our Spottsylvania earthworks. The works "wa'n't 
no great shakes." It was the men in 'em, that made 
them so "killing." 

The men behind those works, such as they were, 
had perfect confidence in their own ability to hold them. 
And this happy combination of "faith" and "works" 
proved as strong against the world and the flesh, here, 
as it does against the devil. It was perfectly effectual ! 
It withstood all assaults! 

This day. May loth, to whose dawn we have now 
come, broke dark, and lowering, very typical of the 
heavy cloud of war that was impending, and soon 
burst upon us, in a fierce tempest, that was going to 
thunder, and howl, and beat upon us, all day, and for 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 43 

days to come. This day was to be an eventful, and 
memorable day to us, — crowded full of incident. 

rSome time during the night, while we were work- 
ing like beavers on "Fort Dodge," infantry had come 
in, on the line. Soon as they got there they set in to 
do what we were doing, to raise, and thicken the line 
against the coming of day, and the equally certain 
coming of battle. When the day came they also, were 
ready. 

We had been too busy to think about them, at the Gregg's 
time, but when we had gotten done, — and had a little Texans to 

the r root 

time to look about us, and day had broken, and the 
fighting time, as we knew, was drawing near, — we 
took an interest in that infantry. Artillerymen are 
always concerned in their "supports," in a fight, and 
we wanted to know who these fellows were, on whom 
we had to depend, as battle comrades, in the approach- 
ing struggle. Our minds were quickly made perfectly 
easy on that score. We found we had alongside of us 
"Gregg's" Texas Brigade, — the gallant, dashing, stub- 
born fellows who had, as they jocularly said, "put 
General Lee under arrest and sent him to the rear," 
and then, had so brilliantly, and effectually, stopped 
Hancock's assault on Hill's right, at the Wilderness. 
Better fellows to have at your back, in a fight, couldn't 
be found ! We knew that part of the line was safe ! 
We mingled together, and chatted, and got acquainted, 
and swapped yarns about our several adventures. We 
told them how particularly glad we were to have them 



144 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



Breakfast- 
less, But 
"Ready for 
Customers" 



there, and our personal relations soon grew as cordial 
as possible. 

Our service together on this spot, and our esteem 
of one another's conduct in battle, made the Texans 
and the "Howitzers" ardent mutual admirers, and fast 
friends, to the end. Never afterwards did we pass 
each other, during the campaign, without hearty 
cheers, each, for the other, and friendly greetings 
and complimentary references to the "Spottsylvania 
lines." Gregg's Texans! Noble fellows! Better sold- 
iers never trod a battlefield. I saw them fight; I saw 
their mettle tried, as by fire. They live in my memory 
as "the bravest of the brave." I hope Texas is grow- 
ing more like them ! 

Having got our Fort in shape, and refreshed our- 
selves a little with a wash, at the stream back of us, 
and thinking how nice some breakfast would be, if we 
had it, (which we didn't, not a crumb!) we got ready 
for the business of the day. We sloped the ground 
downward to the works, so that the guns would run 
easily; placed the gun, and saw that it could poke its 
muzzle well over the dirt, and look around comfort- 
ably in every direction; got some rails, and chocked 
her tight, so that she couldn't run back. Then we got 
a lot of cartridges, and piled them down safely behind 
the works, and in front of the guns, so that we could 
do very rapid firing. Lieutenant Anderson called 
attention to the fact of these pine woods, in front, 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 45 

which came up to within two or three hundred yards, 
and that the enemy could get up very near us, under 
cover, before they started to charge, and we would 
have to put in our work while they were charging 
across the narrow open ground. "So," he said, "Have 
plenty of 'canister' by your guns. Break loose some 
canisters from the powder, so you can double-shot; 
you'll need it." We cannoneers had already thought 
of this; the edge of that wood was in canister range, 
and we had put little else but this short range missile 
in our pile; only a few case-shots to make it lively for 
them in the woods before they came out, and to fol- 
low them into the woods, when they were broken, and 
keep them going. We were now all ready and waited 
for customers. They soon came ! 

It was still early in the morning, about five or six 
o'clock, and, as yet, all was quiet in our front; we 
hadn't even seen a Federal soldier. Suddenly! out of 
the woods to our right, just about five hundred yards 
in front, appeared the heads of three heavy blue col- 
umns, about fifty yards apart, marching across the 
open field toward our left. Here was impudence ! In- 
fantry trying to cross our front! That's the way it 
seemed to strike our fellows. I don't know whether 
they knew our guns were there, but we took it for an 
insult, and it was with a great deal of personal feel- 
ing, we instantly jumped to our guns and loaded with 
case-shot. Lieutenant Anderson said, "Wait till they 
get half way across the field. You'll have more chance 



146 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

at them before they can get back Into those woods." 
We waited, and soon they were stretched out to the 
middle of the field. It was a beautiful mark! Three, 
heavy well closed up columns, fifty yards apart, on 
ground gently sloped upward from us, lovely for 
ricochet shots, — with their flanks to us, and in easy 
range. Dan McCarthy went up to Ned Stine, our 
acting gunner, who was very deaf, and yelled in his 
ear, loud enough for the Federals to hear, "Ned, aim 
at the nearest column, the ricochet pieces of shell will 
strike the columns beyond." "All right," he bawled 
back, with his head on one side, "sighting" the gun. 
"I've got sight on that column, now. Ain't it time to 
shoot?" This instant Anderson sung out, "Section 
commence firing! and get in as many shots as you can 
before they get away." "Yes," shouted Dan, "Fire!" 
"Eh?" said Ned, putting his hand up to his ear, "What 
did you say?" "I said Fire! you deaf old fool — 
Fire!" the last, in a tone calculated for a mile and a 
half. This fetched him. Ned threw up his hands 
(the gunner's signal to fire) and we let drive. All 
Ned wanted was a start, he was only slow in hearing. 
He jumped in now, and we kept that gun blazing 
almost continuously. It was the first time Stine had 
acted gunner, and he did splendidly here, and until 
Dibbrell, our gunner, got back. 

Our first shot struck right in the nearest column, 
and burst, and we instantly saw a line opened through 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 47 

all three columns, and a great deal of confusion. The 
shot from the "Third Piece" struck at another point, 
and burst, just right for effect. I am sure not a single 
shot missed in that crowd, and we drove them in just 
as fast as we could. The columns were pretty badly 
broken, and in two minutes, they were rapidly cross- 
ing back into that woods, out of which they had come, 
and disappeared. The Texans were greatly pleased 
with this performance. Having nothing to do, as the 
enemy was out of effective rifle range, they stood 
around, and watched us work the guns, and noticed, 
with keen interest, the effect of our shots upon the 
blue columns, and they made the welkin ring, when the 
Federals turned to retire. 

In a minute or two we received notice of our work parrott's 
from another quarter. That artillery, up there on S^p^'J*'*, 

^ J ^ ^ Napoleon s 

the hill, beyond the woods, woke up. They got mad Twenty to 
at our treatment of their infantry friends, furiously 
mad. "Boom" went a loud report, over the way, and, 
the same instant, a savage shriek right over our heads, 
of a twenty pounder Parrott shell. Another followed, 
another, and another. They began to rain over. We 
could detect the sound of different shells, three inch 
rifle, ten pounder Parrott, and twenty pounder 
Parrott. 

Some fifteen or twenty guns joined in, and they 
hammered away most savagely. Most fortunately 
the treetops of that wood, out in our front, came up 



148 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

just high enough to conceal us from the enemy. They 
could see our smoke, and knew just about our posi- 
tion, but they could not exactly see us, and correct 
their aim by the smoke of their shells. So they could 
not get the exact range. And that makes a great dif- 
ference, in artillery firing, as it does in a great many 
other things. To know just about and to know exactly, 
are two very different things in effect, and in satisfac- 
tion to the worker. If those people could have seen 
our two guns, I suppose they could have smashed them 
both, and killed, or wounded every man of us, and 
their columns could have moved across our front, in 
peace, and accomplished this movement they were try- 
ing to get across them for, and about which they 
seemed very anxious. As it was, neither man, nor 
gun, of ours, was touched, though it was hot as pep- 
per all around there ; and our guns stuck there a thorn 
in their sides, and broke up that movement altogether. 
It seems that those columns were a part of War- 
ren's Corps, and were trying to push into an interval 
between our Corps, and A. P. Hill's Corps, which, 
under command of General Jubal Early (Hill being 
very sick) began just on our left, our position being 
on the left of Longstreet's line, near its junction with 
Hill's. This infantry was pushing across our front to 
get into that gap, and make it hot for "Old Jubal" over 
there in the woods. But, in order to get to that gap, 
they were forced to pass close to us, and across that 
open field. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 49 

Now, at once, to insult us, and to hurt our friends, 
was a move that we didn't at all approve, and were 
not going to stand. And as soon as we discovered 
the meaning of this move, we were very earnest to 
stop it. 

Well ! we had stopped it once, and driven back 
the Federal columns of attack. It remained to see 
what they were going to do about it. The Federal 
artillery thundered at us through the trees. We quietly 
sat and waited to see. 

In about half an hour, ( I suppose they thought we 
were pulverized by the fire their guns had been pour- 
ing upon us,) we saw those three infantry columns 
pouring out of the woods again, at a quick step. We 
manned the guns, and waited as before, till they 
reached the middle of the field. Then we began to 
plow up the columns with shrapnel. This time some 
of our infantry tried and found it in range for their 
muskets and they adjusted their rifle sights and took 
careful aim, with a rest on the top of the works. 
Soon, the columns faltered, then stopped, then broke, 
and made good time back to their woods. We could 
see their oflficers trying to rally them, but they refused 
to hear "the voice of the charmer." Soon they dis- 
appeared! 

Then the artillery began to pour in their shells 
on us more furiously than ever! The air around us 
was kept in a blaze, and a roar of bursting shells, and 



150 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

the ground, all about, was furrowed and torn. We 
quietly sat behind our works, and interchanged our 
individual observations on what had just taken place, 
and waited for further developments. 

The two rifled pieces of our Battery, and the other 
rifled guns of our Battalion, "Cabells," had been laced 
in position, on a hill half a mile back of, and higher, 
than the low hill on which we were. The plan was for 
these long range guns to fire over our heads, at the 
enemy. We suspected that when that Federal infantry 
next tried to pass us, they would try to make a rush. 
So Lieutenant Anderson sent back to the other guns, 
calling attention to this probability, and suggesting 
that they should be on the lookout, and reinforce our 
fire, and try, also, to divert the Federal artillery, a 
little. We thought that with eight or ten rifled guns, 
added to the fire of ours, and what the infantry could 
do, we could sicken that Federal infantry of the effort 
to get by. 

Presently we noticed the fire of the Federal guns 
increase in violence to a marked degree. At this sav- 
age outburst. Lieutenant Anderson said, "Boys, get to 
your guns, that infantry will try to get across under 
cover of this." We sprang to the guns, and sure 
enough, in a minute, those blue columns burst out of 
the woods at a double quick. "Open on them at once 
men. We can't let them get a start this time," shouted 
Anderson. Both guns instantly began to drive at the 
head of their columns. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 151 

The sound of our guns started our rifle guns on 
the hill behind. They opened furiously, and we could 
hear their shells screeching over our heads, on into 
this enemy's columns. We did our best, and the Tex- 
ans did what musket fire they could. The enemy still 
advanced at a run, but this storm was too much for 
them. Their columns were torn to pieces, were thrown 
into hopeless confusion. They had, by this time, gotten 
half way or more across the field, and they made a 
gallant effort to keep on, but torn and storm-beaten as 
they were, they could not stand. The crowd broke 
and parted. A few ran on across to the farther 
woods, and were captured by Hill's men. The rest, 
routed and scattered, ran madly back to the cover 
they had left. This gave them enough ! They gave 
up the attempt, and tried it no more. 

We thought that Hill's Corps "owed us one" for 
this job. We certainly saved them a lot of trouble by 
thus protecting their flank. They had to stand a heavy 
assault by Hancock's Corps, and had very hot work 
as it was. If these strong columns, that we were tak- 
ing care of, had gotten into that gap, and taken them 
at disadvantage, they would have had a hard time, to 
say the least. Our work left them to deal with Han- 
cock's Corps alone, which they did to their credit, and 
with entire success, as will appear. 

That little scheme of our long-range guns on the 
hill behind, firing over our heads at the enemy acted 
very well, for a while. It came to have its very 



152 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

decided inconvenience to iis, as well as to the enemy. 
When the Federal infantry had retired, those guns 
turned their fire on the Federal artillery which was 
hammering us. They meant to divert their attention, 
and do us a good turn. They had better have left us 
to "the ills we had." Their line of fire, at that artil- 
lery, was exactly over our position. Very soon their 
shells got tired travelling over, and began to stop 
with us. Our Confederate shells were often very 
badly made, the weight in the conical shells not well 
balanced. And so, very often, instead of going quietly, 
point foremost, like decent shells, where they were 
aimed, they would get to tumbling, that is, going end 
over end, or "swappin' ends" as the Tar Heels used 
to describe it, and then, there was no telling where 
they would go, except that they would certainly go 
wrong. And, they went very wrong, indeed, on this 
occasion, in our opinion. 

The sound of a tumbling Parrott shell in full flight, 
is the most horrible noise that ever was heard! — a 
wild, venomous, fiendish scream, that makes every fel- 
low, in half a mile of it, feel that it is looking for him 
particularly, and certain that it's going to get him. I 
believe it would have made Julius Caesar, himself, "go 
for a tree," or want to, anyhow! 

Well ! these blood-curdlers came crashing into us, 
from the rear, knocking up clouds of dirt, digging 
great holes, bursting, and raining fragments around 
us in the field. We were not firing, and had leisure 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 53 

to realize the fix we were in. With the enemy hotly 
shelling us from the front, and our friends from the 
rear, obliged to stay by our guns, expecting an infan- 
try assault every minute, we certainly were in a pretty 
tight fix, " 'Tween the devil and the deep sea." 

It was the only time I ever saw Lieutenant Ander- 
son excited under fire, but he was excited now, and 
mad too. He said to one of the fellows, "Go back 
under the hill, get on a horse, ride as hard as you can, 
and tell those men on the hill, what confounded work 
they are doing, and if they fire any more shells, here, 
I will open on them immediately." In a few minutes 
it was stopped, with many regrets on the part of our 
friends. 

In the midst of all this, an incident took place that The Narrow 
created a great deal of amusement. Along the line, Entir*^ * 
just back of and somewhat protected by the works. Company 
the Texans had pitched several of the little "shelter 
tents" we used to capture from the enemy, and found 
such a convenience. One of these stood apart. It 
had a piece of cloth, buttoned on the back, and clos- 
ing that end up to about eighteen inches from the top, 
leaving thus, a triangular hole just under the ridge 
pole. In this little tent sat four men, a captain and 
three privates, all that were left of a Company in this 
Texan Brigade. These fellows were playing "Seven- 
up" and, despite the confusion around, were having a 
good time. Suddenly, one of the shells from the hill 



154 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

behind, struck, tumbled over once or twice, and 
stopped, right in the mouth of that tent, the fuse still 
burning. The game stopped! The players were up, 
instantly. The next moment, one fellow came diving 
headforemost out of that triangular hole at the back, 
followed fast by the other three — the captain last. It 
only took "one time and one motion" to get out of 
that. Soon as they could pick themselves up, they, all 
four, jumped behind a tree that stood there; and then, 
the fuse went out, and the shell didn't burst. Every- 
body had seen the shell fall, and were horror stricken 
at the apparently certain fate of those four men. Now, 
the absurdity of the scene struck us all, and there were 
shouts of laughter at their expense. Despite their 
sudden, hasty retreat through that narrow hole every- 
one of the scamps had held on to his "hand," and they 
promptly kicked the shell aside, crawled into the tent 
again, and continued their little game; interrupted, 
however, by jokes from all sides. It was very funny! 
The smoking shell, in front, and those fellows shoot- 
ing through that hole at the back, and alighting all in 
a heap, and then the scramble for that tree. As the 
shell went out, it was a roaring farce. If it hadn't, it 
would have been a tragedy. The Captain said that 
these three men were his whole company, and when 
that lighted shell struck, he thought that his company 
was "gone up" for good and all. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 55 

Such was about the size to which some of the com- 
panies of this Texan Brigade was reduced. 

Well ! after we got rid of those shells from the rear 
we didn't so much mind the artillery fire from the 
front, which kept up more or less through the morning. 

What with the wet, cheerless weather, and the men- 
tal discomfort of staying in a place where they were 
"shooting cannons" at us, and other kind of shooting 
might soon be expected, two of our men got sick, and 
went back to the position of our guns on the hill in the 
rear. The Captain appealed to them to go back, but 
their health was bad, and they didn't think the place 
where we were, a health resort. So Captain McCar- 
thy called for volunteers to take their places, and in- 
stantly John W. Page, and George B. Harrison, of 
the First Detachment, offered, and came over to us. 

Up to this time we had seen no infantry since their Successive 
columns had tried to cross our front. No attack had p*^gj!^i 
been made on us and all seemed quiet out in front. Infantry 
except that artillery. But, out of our sight, over 
behind the woods, the enemy was conspiring to break 
up our quiet in the most decided manner. About ten 
o'clock we suddenly caught sight of a confused appear- 
ance down through the woods on our right front. It 
quickly defined itself as a line of battle, rapidly ad- 
vancing. Our pickets fired upon it, then ran back 
over the works into our line. The Texans sprang into 
rank, we jumped to our guns, and sent a case-shot 



156 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

tearing down through the woods. Next instant, the 
Federal Hne dashed, cheering, out of the edge of the 
woods, and came charging at us. As they dashed out, 
they were met by a furious storm of bullets, and can- 
nister, which at two hundred yards tore their ranks. 
They got about a hundred yards under that fire, then 
began to falter, then stopped, tried to stand for a 
moment, then with their battle line shot all to pieces, 
they turned and broke for the woods in headlong 
rout. We did our best to help them along, shooting 
at them with case-shot as long as we could catch any 
glimpse of them, moving back through the trees. 
Then that Federal artillery got savage again. We 
lay low and waited for some more infantry. 

Very soon, here they came again ! another line 
charging on, only to meet the same fate; shattered 
lines, hapless disorder, bloody repulse, and rapid 
retreat. Several times they tried to reach our lines, 
and every time failed, then gave it up for the time. 

These various assaults took up the time, I should 
say from ten-thirty to twelve o'clock. When they 
were over, the field, and wood in front of us displayed 
a most dreadful scene. The field was thickly strewn 
with the dead, and wounded. And just along the edge 
of the wood, where the advancing lines generally first 
met our full fire, in the several assaults, the dead lay 
so thick and in such regular order, that it looked to us 
like a line of battle, lying down. And the poor 
wounded fellows lying thickly about! It was fright- 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 57 

ful to see and to hear them. It was a bloody busi- 
ness, their oft-repeated effort to take our line. Their 
loss was very severe, ours was almost nothing. The 
Texan Brigade in all their assaults had several 
wounded, none killed; at our guns not a man was hurt. 

One thing that struck me in that fighting was the 
utter coolness of the Texan infantry. I watched the 
soldier next to my gun, and can never forget his bear- 
ing. The whizzing bullets, the heavy storming col- 
umns pouring upon us, the yells and cries of the com- 
batants were enough to excite anybody, but this fel- 
low was just as easy and deliberate as if he had been 
shooting at a mark. He would drop the butt of his 
musket on the ground and ram down a cartridge, 
raise the piece to his hip, put on a cap, cock the ham- 
mer, and then, slowly draw the gun up to his eye, and 
shoot. I really don't think that Texan fired a shot 
that day until the sight on his gun covered a Federal 
soldier, and I think it likely he hit a man every time 
he shot. It was this sort of shooting that made the 
carnage in front so terrible. 

And what a confident lot they were ! After one 
or two of these lines had been repulsed, as the enemy 
were advancing again, you could hear the men in the 
line calling one to another, "Say, boys, don't shoot so 
quick this time ! Let them get up closer. Too many 
of them get away, when you start so soon." Truly 
they were the unterrified! Our line was so thin; those 



158 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Storming lines of blue as they came storming on 
seemed heavy enough to roll over us like a tidal 
wave. Yet it never seemed to occur to these fellows 
that they might be run over. Their only thought was 
to "let them get up closer next time." Their only 
concern was that "too many of them were getting 
away." Good men, they were, to hold a line! 

At last, this furious attempt, by Warren and Han- 
cock, to force our position ceased. And as we saw, out 
in front, the heavy losses of the enemy, and still had 
every one of our men ready for duty, we thought "ive 
could stand this sort of thing, if they could, and just 
as long as they chose to keep on." They lost in dead 
and wounded about twelve hundred men to about four 
of ours. Certainly, we could stand it ! So we piled 
some more canister in front of our guns, and watched 
to see what they would do next. 

The long hours crept on until three o'clock, — when 
the warming up of the Federal artillery fire warned 
us of another attack. Soon came another stubborn 
assault by Warren's Corps. Same result. Line after 
line pushed out from the woods, only to be hurled 
back, bleeding and torn, leaving on the field large addi- 
tions to the sad load of dead, and wounded, with 
which it was already encumbered. They effected noth- 
ing! Very little loss to us, heavy loss to them. We 
were using double shot of canister nearly every time, 
on masses of men at short range; the infantry fire 
was rapid and deadly. Our fire soon swept the front 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 59 

clear of the enemy. We piled up more canister, and 
waited again. 

There was now an interval of comparative quiet. 
We could walk around, and talk, and look about us, 
a little. Now and then a bullet struck the ground 
close to us, and presently one of the infantry was 
struck slightly. It was plain that a concealed sharp- 
shooter had our range, and we began to watch for 
him. Soon one of us caught a glimpse of him; he was 
up a tree some distance out in front, and he would 
cautiously edge around the trunk and fire, dodging 
back behind the trunk to load again. One of the 
Texans went over the works, and stole from stump to 
stump off toward the left, and for some time was out 
of our sight. Presently, we saw that sharp-shooter 
slyly stealing around the tree, and raise his rifle. The 
next instant, we saw a puff of smoke from a bush, off 
to the left, and that sharp-shooter came plunging 
down, headforemost out of the tree, dead as Hector. 
Our man had crept round so that when the Federal 
slid around the tree, he exposed his body, and the 
Texan shot him. 

Robert Stiles, the Adjutant of the Battalion, who 
had been, until lately, a member of our Battery, and 
was very devoted to It, and his comrades in it, had 
come to the lines to see how we were getting on, and 
gave us news of other parts of the line. He, Beau 
Barnes, and others of us were standing by our guns, 



l6o FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

talking, when a twenty pounder Parrott shell came 
grazing just over our guns, passed on, and about forty 
yards behind us struck a pine tree, about two and a 
half to three feet in diameter. The shell had turned. 
It struck that big tree sideways, and cut it entirely 
off, and threw it from the stump. It fell in an upright 
position, struck the ground, stood, for an instant, and 
then, came crashing down. It was a very creepy sug- 
gestion of what that shell might have done to one of 
us. A few moments after another struck the ground 
right by us and ricochetted. After it passed us, as 
was frequently the case, we caught sight of it, and 
followed its upward flight until it seemed to be going 
straight up to the sky. Stiles said "There it goes as 
though flung by the hand of a giant." Beau Barnes, 
who was not poetical, exclaimed, "Giant be darned; 
there ain't any giant can fling 'em like that." He was 
right ! 

Strange how the most trivial incidents keep their 
place in the memory, along with the great events, 
amidst which they occurred! I remember the fall of 
that tree, and the remark about that shell, and a small 
piece of pork which an Arkansas soldier gave me, and 
which, in jumping to the guns, I dropped into a mud- 
hole, and never found again, though I fished for it 
diligently in the muddy water, and a pig, which was 
calmly rooting around near our guns, under fire, and 
which we watched, hoping he would be hit, so that we 
could get his meat, before the infantry did, to satisfy 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE l6l 

our wolfish hunger, just as distinctly as the several 
fierce battles which were fought that day. 

About five o'clock the Federal guns on the hill in 
our front broke out again into a furious fire. It was 
a warning! We knew it meant that the infantry were 
about to charge again. We got to our guns, and the 
Texans stood to their arms. It seems that the bal- 
ance of Hancock's Corps had got up, and now, with 
Warren's, and part of Sedgwick's Corps, formed in 
our front. Grant was going to make the supreme 
effort of the day, to break our line. 

What we saiv was that far down in the woods, 
heavy columns of men were moving; the woods 
seemed to be full of them. The pickets, and our guns 
opened on them at once. The next moment they ap- 
peared, three heavy lines one close behind the other. 
As they reached the edge of the woods, our lines were 
blazing with fire. But on they came ! The first line 
was cut to pieces, only to have its place taken by the 
next, and then, the next. Closer and closer to our 
guns they pressed their bloody way, until they were 
within fifty yards of us. Heavens! how those men did 
strive, and strain to make their way against that tem- 
pest of bullets and canister! It was too much for man 
to do ! They stopped and stayed there, and fired and 
shouted, under our withering fire. The carnage was 
fearful. Their men were being butchered! Their 
lines had all fallen into utter confusion. They could 



l62 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



Eggleston's 

Heroic 

Death 



not come on! Despair suddenly seized theml The 
next moment a panic stricken cloud of fugitives was 
fast vanishing from our view, and the ground over 
which they had charged was blue with corpses, and 
red with blood. 

Just here, we of the "Howitzer" suffered our 
first, and only, loss in this day's fighting. Cary Eggle- 
ston, "No. i" at third gun, had his arm shattered, and 
almost cut away from his body, by a fragment of shell. 
He quietly handed his rammer to John Ayres, who 
that instant came up to the gun, and said, "Here 
Johnny, you take it and go ahead!" Then, gripping 
his arm with his other hand, partly to stop the fast 
flowing blood, he turned to his comrades, and said in 
his jocular way, "Boys, I can never handle a sponge- 
staff any more. I reckon I'll have to go to teaching 
school." Then he stood a while, looking at the men 
working the gun. They urged him to go to the rear; 
he would not for a while. When he consented to go, 
they wanted to send a man with him, but he refused, 
and walked off by himself. As he passed back an 
infantry ofllicer, seeing what an awful wound he had, 
and the streaming blood, insisted that one of the men 
should go and help him to the hospital. "No," he 
said; "I'm all right, and you haven't got any men to 
spare from here." So, holding his own arm, and 
compressing the artery with his thumb, he got to the 
hospital. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 63 

His arm was amputated, and a few days after, as 
the battery passed through Spottsylvania Court House, 
we went by the Court House building, used as a hos- 
pital, where he lay on the floor, and bade him "good- 
bye." He was just as cheerful, and bright, as ever, 
and full of eager interest in all that was going on. 
Said "Since he had time to think about it, he believed 
he could handle a sponge-staff with one hand; was 
going to practice it soon as he could get up, and would 
be back at his post before long." The next day, the 
brave young fellow died. The "Howitzers" will 
always remember him tenderly. No braver, cooler 
warrior ever lived! Always bright, full of fun in 
camp, and on the march, he was at the gun in action, 
the best "No. i" I ever saw. One of the few men 
I ever knew who really seemed to enjoy a fight. His 
bearing, when he was wounded, was simply heroic. 
No wounded knight ever passed off his last battlefield 
in nobler sort. All honor to his memory! 

John Ayres, the fellow to whom Cary Eggleston 
handed his rammer, was at his home in Buckingham 
County, Virginia, on furlough, when we started on the 
campaign. Off in the remote country, he didn't hear 
of our movements for several days. The moment he 
heard it, off he started, walked thirteen miles to the 
James River Canal boat; got to Richmond, came up 
to Louisa County on the Central Railroad, got off 
and walked twenty-three miles across country, guided 



164 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

by the sound of the battle, and reached his gun just in 
time to take Eggleston's place as "No. i" and finish 
the fight. 

When the enemy had thus broken in such utter 
rout, and with such fearful losses, we did hope they 
would let us alone, for this day at least. We were 
wet, and hungry, and nearly worn out working the 
gun, off and on all day, and it was late in the after- 
noon. For an hour or more things were quiet; the 
woods in front seemed deserted and still; the Texans 
were lying stretched out on the ground, all along the 
line; many of them asleep. We cannoneers were 
wearily sitting about the guns, wishing to gracious we 
had something to eat, and could go to bed, even if 
the bed were only one blanket, on the wet ground. 

Our rifled guns had just been firing at a Federal 
battery which we could see, up on the hill in front of 
us. Watching the effect of the shots, we saw one of 
the caissons blown up, and a gun disabled, and soon 
confusion. Somebody remarked, "how easy it would 
be to take that battery, if any of our infantry were in 
reach." Just then, we heard loud cheering, which 
sounded to us, to be up in the woods, on our left, 
where Hill's men were. Someone instantly cried out, 
"There it goes now ! Hill's men are going to take those 
guns." We eagerly gathered at the works, some dis- 
tance to the left of our guns, where we could see bet- 
ter, and stood gazing up at the edge of the field, ex- 
pecting every moment to see Hill's troops burst out 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 65 

of the woods, and rush upon these guns. Our atten- 
tion was absorbed, off there, when, all of a sudden, 
one of our fellows who happened to glance the other 
way, yelled, "Good heavens ! look out on the right." 
We all looked! There, pouring out of the woods, 
yelling like mad men, came the Federal infantry, fast 
as they could run, rushing straight upon our line. The 
whole field was blue with them! When we first saw 
them, the foremost were already within one hundred 
yards of our works, and aiming for a point about two 
hundred yards to our right. The breath was about 
knocked out of us by the suddenness of the surprise! 
It was not Hill's men charging them, but these fel- 
lows charging us, — whose yells we had heard, and 
here they were, right upon us ! In two jumps we 
were at our gun. We had to turn it more to the right, 
and, with the first shot, blow away a light traverse, 
which was higher than the level of the gun, before we 
could bear on their columns. We sent two or three 
canisters tearing through their ranks; the Texans 
were blazing away, but, they had got too close to be 
stopped. The next instant, they surged over our 
works like a great blue wave, and were inside. 

So sudden was the surprise that they bayonetted «xexas Will 
two of the Texan Infantry, asleep upon the ground. Never 
Soon as they got over they turned, and began to Virginia" 
sweep down the works, on the iriQirle, upon uui gu.^o. 
As the 1 exans forced to retire streamed past our guns. 



1 66 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

leaving us all alone and unsupported to face the enemy, 
Lieutenant Anderson said, "Men, the road is only a 
little way back of us; we must stay here, and stop 
these people, or the Army is cut in two. Run the guns 
back and open on them. We can hold them until help 
comes." We turned the guns round so as to com- 
mand the approaching enemy, and chocked them with 
rails; several men snatched up the pile of ammuni- 
tion, and piled it down before the guns in their new 
place, then we opened, with double canister. 

If ever two guns were worked for all they were 
worth, those were ! I don't believe any two guns, in 
the same time, ever fired as many shots as those two 
"Napoleons" did. We kept them just spouting can- 
ister! Several times three canisters were fired. Billy 
White, "No. 2," had only to reach down for them, 
and he would have loaded the guns to the muzzle if 
"No. i" had given him time. The gun got so hot that, 
once, in jumping in to put in the friction primer, the 
back of my left hand touched it, and the skin was 
nearly taken off. The sponge was entirely worn off 
the rammer, so "No. i" stopped sponging out the gun, 
and only rammed shot home. We fired so fast that 
the powder did not have time to ignite in the gun. 
After firing the gun, "No. 4" could hardly get the 
"primer" in before the gun was loaded, and ready to 
fire again. So it went on! It was fast and furious 
work! And the bullotc ^jnnnded like bees buzzing 
above our heads. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 67 

I felt a sharp pain, then a numbness in my right 
hand. I glanced at it, and saw that the back of it was 
cut open, and bleeding. I had to pull the lanyard 
with my left hand the rest of the fight. I supposed a 
bullet had done it, but was disgusted to see blood on 
one of the rails, which chocked our gun, and find that 
this rail had worked loose, and, when struck by the 
recoiling gun wheel, had flown round and struck my 
hand, and disabled it. ,So, it was not an "honorable" 
wound, even though received in battle, as it was not 
done by a missile of the enemy. 

Minute after minute, this hot work went on. 
The enemy, in coming over our works, and sweeping 
around, was thrown into disorder, so that they ad- 
vanced on us in a confused mass. 

In this mass our canister was doing deadly work, 
cutting lanes in every direction. Still on they came ; get- 
ting slower in their advance as the canister constantly 
swept away the foremost men. The men in front be- 
gan to flinch, they were within thirty yards of us, — 
firing wildly now. One good rush! and their bayo- 
nets would have silenced our guns ! But they could 
not face that hail of death any longer; they could not 
make that rush ! They began to give back from our 
muzzles. 

At that moment, the Texans having rallied under 
the bank, forty yards to our right, and rear, came 
leaping like tigers upon their flank. The Texans were 



1 68 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

perfectly furious! It was the first time during the 
whole war that they had been forced from a position, 
under fire, and they were mad enough to eat those 
people up. A screaming yell burst out, a terrific out- 
break of musketry, a rush, with the bayonets, and the 
inside of our work was clear of all, save the many 
dead, and wounded, and six hundred prisoners. 

We ran our gun instantly back to its place, in the 
works, and got several shots into the flying mob, 
outside. 

Then all was gone, and we were ready to drop in 
our tracks, with the exhausting work of the ten min- 
utes that we had held the foe at bay. 

General Gregg came up to our gun. With strong 
emotion he shook hands with each of us ; he then took 
off his hat, and said, "Boys, Texas will never forget 
Virginia for this! Your heroic stand saved the line, 
and enabled my brigade to rally, and redeem its honor. 
It is the first time it ever left a position under fire, 
and it was only forced out, now, by surprise, and 
overwhelming weight. But it could not have rallied 
except for you. God bless you!" This moment Bob 
Stiles came up at a run. He had left the guns a few 
moments before the attack came, and hearing our 
guns so busy came back. 

When General Gregg told him in a very enthusi- 
astic way what we had done, he just rushed up to each 
cannoneer, and hugged him with a grip, strong enough 
to crush in his ribs, and vowed he was going to resign 
his Adjutancy at once, and come back to the guns. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 69 

Pretty soon Major-General Field, commanding 
part of the line, came dashing up on his horse, and 
leaped off. He went round shaking hands with us, 
and saying very civil things. He was red hot! He 
had witnessed the whole thing from his position, on 
a hill near by. He said, "When he saw the Federals 
roll over our works, and the Texans fall back, he was 
at his wits' end. He did not have a man to send us, 
and thought the line was hopelessly broken." Then 
he saw us turn our two guns down inside the works. 
He said to his courier, "It isn't possible these fellows 
will even attempt to keep their guns there. The enemy 
will be over them in two minutes." But as our guns 
roared, and the enemy slowed down, he swung his 
hat, as the courier told us, and yelled out, "By George, 
they will do it!" and clapping spurs into his horse he 
came tearing over to find the Texans in their line, all 
solid again. He said to us, "Men, it was perfectly 
magnificent, and I have to say that your splendid 
stand saved the Army from disaster. If the line had 
been broken here I don't know what we should have 
done." 

Of course all this was very nice to hear. We tried 
to look as if we were used to this sort of thirty all the 
time. But, it was something for us, young chaps, to 
have our hands shaken nearly off, by enthusiastic 
admirers, in the shape of Brigadier and Major-Gen- 
erals, especially as they were such heroic old veterans 



170 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

as Field and Gregg, and to have the breath hugged 
out of us by an old comrade. All this glory was only 
to be divided up among nine men, so there was a big 
share for each one. I must confess, it was very pleas- 
ant indeed to hear that men, who were judges, thought 
we had done a fine thing; and when in General Orders 
next day our little performance was mentioned to the 
whole army in most complimentary terms, and we 
knew that the folks at home would hear it, I am free 
to say, that we would not have "taken a penny for 
our thoughts." 
Contrast in The fight was ovcr, just about as dusk was closing 

the Rea^son* '"' ^^ ^^^^' ^"^ ^^^ ^S^t at five o'clock, the enemy 
Therefor Jost about six thousand men, killed and wounded. In 
the assaults, at ten, eleven and at three o'clock, they 
certainly lost between two and three thousand in killed 
and wounded, so this day's work cost them about seven 
or eight thousand in killed and wounded, besides 
prisoners. 

Our loss was very small. On our immediate part 
of the line, almost nothing. In the battery, we had 
one man wounded at five o'clock. In this furious close 
up fight with infantry, with the awful mauling our 
guns gave them, strange to say, we had not a man 
touched. The only blood shed that day, at the "4th" 
gun, was caused by that rail striking my hand. And 
our battle line was just as it was, in the morning, save 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE I7I 

for the hecatomb of dead and dying in front of it, and 
six hundred prisoners we held inside. 

About these prisoners : Numbers of these men 
were drunk, and officers too. One Colonel was so 
drunk that he did not know he was captured, or what 
had happened. The explanation of this fact, I do 
not profess to know, but this was what the men them- 
selves told us, "That before they charged, heavy 
rations of whiskey were issued, and the men made to 
drink it. I know that indignant denial has been made 
of this charge, that the Federal soldiers were made 
drunk to send them in, but this I do certainly know, 
as an eye witness, and hundreds of our men know it 
too, that here, on the Spottsylvania line, and at Cold 
Harbor, and other times in this campaign, we cap- 
tured numbers of the men, assaulting our lines, who 
were very drunk, and said they were made to drink. 
And this fact is one reason for the carnage among 
them, and the light loss they inflicted upon us. It made 
their men shoot wildly, and the moment our men saw 
this, they could, with the cooler aim, send death into 
their ranks. These hundreds of men going, drunk, 
to face death was a horrible sight; it is a horrible 
thought, but it was a fact. 

In the quiet time, just before that sudden rush "^V . 
which swept over the works. Captain Hunter, of the Hunter 
Texans, was frying some pieces of fat bacon in a fry- Rall^^ms 
ing pan, over a little fire just by our gun. In a flash. Men 



172 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

the enemy was over the work, and we were in the 
thick of battle, and confusion. The Captain glanced 
from his frying bacon, to see his company falling back 
from the works, and the enemy pouring over. The 
sudden sight instantly drove him wild with excitement! 
He utterly forgot what he was doing. With a loud 
yell, he swung that frying pan round and round his 
head, — the hot grease flying in all directions, — and 
rushed to his men, and tried to rally them. (Having 
lost the meat, he failed! With a frying pan full of 
meat he could have rallied the regiment!) Back he 
fell with the brigade, and disappeared under the hill. 

When the rallied Brigade came whooping back 
upon the enemy, ten minutes after, who should be in 
front tearing up the hill, leading the charge, but the 
gallant Captain, yelling like everything, and still wav- 
ing that frying pan, to cheer on his men. More gal- 
lant charge was never led, with gleaming sword, than 
was this, led with that Texas frying pan. 

At the time we were getting our guns around to 
fire upon the enemy inside the works, as the retiring 
Texans were falling back past us. Dr. Carter stepped 
quickly out, and in his courteous manner, called out 
to them, "Gentlemen, dear gentlemen, I hope that you 
are not running." A passing infantryman, a gaunt, 
unwashed, ragged chap, replied, "Never you mind, old 
fellow! We are just dropping back to get to 'em." 
"I beg your pardon," retorted the Doctor, "but if you 
want to get to them, you ought to turn round; they 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 73 

are not the way you are going." They passed on, and 
the fight took place. When it was over we noticed that 
the Doctor was very much vexed about something. 
We asked what was the matter? He said, "Never 
mind!" We insisted on his saying what disturbed him 
so. At last, he said "Well, I don't see why, because 
men are in the army, they should not observe the 
amenities customary among gentlemen." "Well," we 
said, "that is all right ; but why do you say it ?" "Why 1" 
he warmly said; "did you hear that dirty, ragged infan- 
tryman call me an old fellow? A most disrespectful 
way to address a gentleman!" 

All the row of the fight had not put it out of the 
Doctor's mind, and he brooded over it for some time. 
He never did get used to the lack of "amenities" and 
he always had an humble opinion of that unknown 
Texan, who did not observe the form of address cus- 
tomary among gentlemen. The Doctor himself always 
followed his own rule; he was as courteous in manner, 
and civil in speech, as "observant of the amenities" in 
the thick of a fight, as in his own parlor. 

This was the first battle the Doctor was in, having 
lately joined us. As we ceased firing, one of us ex- 
claimed, as we were apt to do, when a fight was over, 
"Well! that was a hot place." The Doctor turned 
on him and eagerly said, "Did I understand you to 
say that was a hot place?" "I did, indeed, and it 
was." The Doctor turned to another, and another, 



174 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

with the same eager question, "Did you think that 
was a hot place?" "Yes," we all agreed, "it was 
about as hot a one as we ever saw, or cared to see." 
"Well," said the Doctor, in a very relieved tone, "I 
am very glad to hear you gentlemen, who have had 
experience, say so. I hesitated a long time about com- 
ing into the army, because I did not want to disgrace 
my family, and I was afraid I should run, at the first 
fire; but, if you call that a hot place I think I can stand 
it." The Doctor's distrust of himself was very funny 
to us; for he was so utterly fearless, and reckless of 
danger, that some of the men thought, and said, that 
he tried to get himself shot. And once, the Captain 
threatened to put him under arrest, and send him to 
the rear, if he did not stop wantonly exposing his life. 
He had very little cause to distrust his courage, or fear 
that he would "disgrace his family" in this, or any 
other way. 

When the fight was over, we promptly went among 
the Federal wounded, who lay thickly strewn on the 
inside of our lines, to see what we could do for their 
comfort and relief. Curious how one could, one min- 
ute, shoot a man down, and the next minute go and 
minister to him like a brother; so it was! The moment 
an enemy was wounded he ceased to be thought of as 
an enemy, and was just a suffering fellow man. 

We did what we could for these wounded men, 
giving water to some; disposing the bodies of some in 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 75 

a more comfortable position, cheering them all up 
with the promise of prompt aid from the surgeons. 

Among many others, we came to one man, mor- 
tally wounded and dying. His life was fast ebbing 
way; he was perfectly aware of his condition. He 
earnestly entreated that some one of us would pray 
for him. The request was passed on to Robert Stiles, 
who was still at our guns. 

He came at once ! Taking the hand of the poor 
dying fellow tenderly In his own. Stiles knelt right 
down by him on that wet, bloody ground, and. In a 
fervent prayer commended his soul to God. Then, 
as a brother might, stayed by him, saying what he 
could to comfort the troubled soul, and fix his thoughts 
upon the Saviour of men, and have him ready to meet 
his God. 

Some of us looked reverently on with hearts full 
of sympathy in the scene. It was a sight I wish the 
men of both armies could have looked upon. Right 
on the bloody battlefield, surrounded by the dead and 
dying, that Confederate soldier kneeling over that 
dying Federal soldier praying for him. 

Well! the long weary day of battle was closing 
and the fighting was done, at last. This loth of May 
was a day filled up with fun, and fasting, and furious 
fighting; simple description, but correct. Thirteen to 
sixteen lines of Infantry we had broken, and repulsed, 
during that day; and what between infantry and artil- 
lery we were under fire all day from five A. M. to 



176 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

nine o'clock that night; had toiled all night long, the 
night before; not a morsel had passed our lips all 
day, but one small crustless corn cake, taken out of 
a wet bag that had lain for hours, in the rain. A tired 
lot, we lay down that night on the wet ground to sleep, 
and be ready for the morrow. We fell asleep with 
the artillery still roaring on the lines, and shells still 
screaming about in the dark, and slept a sound dream- 
less sleep all through the night. 

The next day, the nth, was, for the most part, 
quiet and uneventful 1 The bloody and disastrous 
repulse of every effort of the enemy to force our 
line, had, as it well might, discouraged any further 
attempt along our front. From time to time we could 
hear the Federal artillery, on our front or other parts 
of the line, feeling our position, with an occasional 
reply from our guns. 

The sharp-shooters of both sides were keeping up 
their own peculiar fun. At every point of vantage, 
on a hill, or behind a stump, or up a leafy tree, one 
of these marksmen was concealed, and would try his 
globe-sight rifle on any convenient mark, in the way 
of a man, which offered on the opposite line. Any 
fellow who exposed himself soon heard a bullet 
whistle past his ear, too close for comfort. Several 
of us had narrow escapes, but the only casualty we suf- 
fered was Cornelius Coyle. Coyle was from North 
Carolina and it seems that the jokes we were wont 
to indulge in at the expense of the "Tar Heels" had 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 77 

gotten hm sore on the subject. In order to show us 
that a "Tar Heel" was as careless of danger as any- 
body else, he exposed himsdf, very unnecessarily, by 
standing on the works and on the guns, while the rest 
of us were "roosting low," and about two o'clock he 
got a bullet in the thigh, which disabled him, I believe, 
for the rest of the war. It was bad judgment! The 
jokes on the "Tar Heels" were only meant in fun. 
Nobody ever doubted the courage and gallantry of 
the North Carolinians. They had proved it too often, 
and were proving it every day ! It did not need for 
Coyle to expose himself to prove it to us, and by his 
mistake we lost a good soldier. 

The coming of night found all quiet on the lines. 
In the late afternoon, and early night, we could 
plainly hear the sound of, — what we took to be, — 
wagon trains and artillery, over in the enemy's lines, 
passing off to our right. We got therefrom the im- 
pression that the Federals were leaving our front and 
that by morning they would all be gone. So we were 
not surprised when a courier came with the orders 
from headquarters that we should get our guns out of 
the works, limber up, and be ready to move at 
daylight. 

We drew our gun from its place at the works, up Having 
the little incline we had made for its more easy run- 5^^?«™*° 
ning forward, hitched its trail to the pintle-hook of the 
limber, chocked the wheels, and left it there until we 



lyS FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

should move. The men picked out the least wet spots 
they could find, and lay down to sleep. Everybody 
was very tired, nearly worn out with the incessant work, 
and marching, and watching, and fighting, of the last 
seven or eight days and nights. This was the first 
really quiet night we had known for a week! The 
quiet and the assurance that the enemy was gone from 
our front, and that there was no need to bother about 
them, lulled the men into deep slumber. The infantry 
was all stretched out along the lines sleeping, and even 
the pickets out in front were, I am sure, sound asleep. 

Every soul of our cannoneers was asleep, except 
Sergt. Dan. McCarthy, Beau Barnes, Jack Booker, 
and myself. We sat together, by the gun, talking and 
smoking until midnight. Then Jack said he would go 
to bed, and did. We three, McCarthy, Barnes and 
I, continued our conversation for some time longer, 
for no special reason, except perhaps, that we were 
too tired to move, and we sat there, in the dark, listen- 
ing to the rumbling of heavy wheels over in the Fed- 
eral lines, and talking about the events of the last few 
days, speculating about what was to come. Then our 
thoughts ran on other days, and scenes, and the folks 
at home, and we talked about these until we became 
quite sentimental. 

Several times it was suggested that we had better 
go to sleep, but we talked ourselves wide awake. 
About two o'clock it was again suggested, but Dan 
said he did wish we had something to eat first. This 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 79 

was a most agreeable thought, and In discussing the 
same it was discovered that I had a corncake, Dan 
had some coffee, and Beau some sugar. So we re- 
solved, before lying down, to go back under the hill, 
some fifty yards behind the works, where a fire was 
kept burning or smoldering all the time, and have a 
little supper of bread and coffee, which we proceeded 
to do. We made up the fire, got water from the 
branch, warmed our corncake, boiled the coffee, got 
out our tin cups, and sat around the fire having a fine 
time. It was now about time for daybreak, though 
still very dark. Dan proposed that we stroll up to 
the guns, and lie down awhile. We walked slowly 
up! When we got to the guns all was still, and 
quiet, as when we left, and I really believe we three 
were the only men awake on that part of the line. 

Before lying down Dan and I stepped to where 
our gun had been, and stood a moment looking out 
through the dim light, which had hardly begun, of a 
dark cloudy morning. 

We had no object in this outlook, it was the in- 
stinct of a soldier to look around him before going 
to sleep. It was, I think, the Providence of God to 
an important result. For most fortunate indeed was 
it that we took that glance out toward the front. - 

As our eye rested upon the edge of the wood out 
to our right front, we caught a vague glimpse of move- 
ment among the trees. We called Barnes, and stood 



l80 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

together, watching keenly. Presently the air lightened 
a little, and we could discern the dim figures of men 
moving about, just within the woods. "Who are those 
men?" Dan asked. "Did either of you see any of 
the troops pass out of the lines during the night?" 
"No, we had not." "Then," he said, "I don't like this. 
Who can they be?" Just then the cloud seemed to 
lift a little, more light shot into the landscape, and, to 
our dismay, we clearly saw a line of men. Yes! no 
doubt now! That was a battle line of Federals, 
formed there in the edge of the woods, and just be- 
ginning to advance, — as silently as so many ghosts. 
There they were, two hundred yards off marching 
swiftly for our line, and everybody fast asleep in that 
line ! 

The horror of the situation flashed on us. The 
enemy would be bayonetting our sleeping, helpless 
comrades, and the line be taken in two minutes ! What 
could we do to save them? Wake them up? No time 
to get a dozen men roused up before the fatal peril 
would be upon us. Suddenly! the same thought seemed 
to flash into our minds. Fire the gun! that will wake 
up the line instantly.' Come boys! There was a case- 
shot in the gun. I remembered I had not fired it out, 
and I had my friction primer box on, and a primer 
hooked to the lanyard. We jerked the trail loose 
from the limber, and let the gun run to Its place! Be- 
fore it stopped, I think, I had the primer in, while 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 15 1 

Dan pulled the trail round to get the aim. He sprung 
aside as I let drive. 

The crash of that Napoleon, and the scream of 
the shell there, in the deep stillness of day-dawn, 
sounded as if it might be heard all over Virginia ! The 
effect was instant! You ought to have seen the boys, 
lying all about, "tumble up." They flirted up from 
the ground like snap bags! "Gabriel's trumpet" 
couldn't have jerked them to their feet quicker. 

Ned Barnes had lain down right where the gun 
had been, at the work. When we ran it back to its 
place, in our excitement, we did not notice him. For- 
tunately the wheels went on either side of him. He 
was lying flat on his back, and right under the gun, 
when it fired. Ned went on like a chicken with its 
head off. There was a scuffle, a yell, the whack of a 
bumped head under the gun. Ned came tumbling out, 
all in a heap, perfectly dazed, and wanting to know, 
in indignant tones, "What in the thunder we were 
doing that way for?" 

Before the sound of our gun had died away the 
whole line was up, shooting like mad, and both guns 
were going hard. A few minutes of this sent that 
sneaking line back to the woods, with a good deal 
more noise, and faster, than it came. We learnt, 
afterwards, that the idea was to surprise us, if pos- 
sible. If so, to take, and sweep our line. If not, not 
to press the attack. The "surprise" was all they could 



1 82 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

have wished. Not a picket fired on them. They were 
in one hundred and fifty yards of our sleeping men, 
and could have simply walked over them, and cap- 
tured the whole line at that point. And, if they had — 
fixed as our Army was, a half hour later — it would, 
I am sure, have meant disaster. The only thing that 
averted it was, humanly speaking, the accident that 
three young "Howitzers" sat up talking all night, and, 
happened to look over at that wood at the break of 
day, — and had a cannon handy! 

I think the Texans "owed us another one" for 
this, and the Army of Northern Virginia "owed us 
one" too. Major-General Field said so in his report 
of this incident. 

The very same thing which would have happened 
here was happening five minutes later up the line to 
our right, where the Federal troops came right over 
our works, and caught our exhausted soldiers asleep 
in their blankets — the start of the bloody business of 
the Bloody Angle. 

Yes ! the bloody work which was to go on all day 
long, this dreadful 12th of May, was already begin- 
ning, up there in the woods. 

The little firing on our part of the line was scarcely 
over, before we heard the sound of musketry come 
rolling down the line from the right. Soon the big 
guns joined in, and we knew that a furious fight was 
going on, off there. In a few moments we got the 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 83 

news, called from man to man down along the lines, 
"The Yankees have taken the Salient on Ewell's front, 
and captured Ed. Johnson's Division, and twenty 
guns. Pass it down the lines!" 

So it was ! In overwhelming masses the Federals 
had poured out of the woods, over the Salient Angle, 
where the men were asleep, and from which the can- 
non had been withdrawn. And General Lee was try- 
ing to drive them out, and retake our works. 

This was the great business of the 12th of May. 
A very cyclone of battle raged round that Salient. 
The Federals trying to hold it, our men trying to re- 
take it. We heard that the two Parrott guns of our 
"Right Section" had gone over there to help, and 
they were in the thick of that awful row. We heard 
it all going on, artillery and musketry, rolling and 
crashing away, all day long. 

Our part of the line was comparatively quiet, after 
the fight of the early morning. Several times infan- 
try was seen moving about, down In the woods, in our 
front, and we would send a few shells into the woods 
just to let them know that we were watchful, and 
ready. Harry Sublett was wounded by a stray ball 
on this day. But no real attack was made, only the 
sound of the sharp-shooters's rifle, and the sound of 
their bullets enlivened the time. 

This went on for several days. The idea of break- 
ing our line, here, had been given up as a hopeless 



i84 



FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 



Grant's 
Neglect of 
Federal 
Wounded 



job, and no other attempt was made on it. Assaults 
were made on other points, and we could hear fight- 
ing, here and there, but we were left alone. 

At last, we got orders to move, about the i8th or 
19th. Our pickets had advanced through the woods, 
and reported that the enemy had left our front. 

While waiting for the horses to be brought up to 
take off the guns, an infantryman told me that a cow 
had been killed, between the lines, and was lying down 
there in the woods, in front. 

We had had an awful time about food, for the last 
week, and were hungry as wolves. This news about 
the cow was news indeed. I told several of the boys, 
and off we started to get some of that cow! We found 
it lying just in the edge of the woods. It was a hid- 
eous place to go for a beefsteak! All around, the 
ground was covered with dead Federal soldiers, many 
in an advanced stage of decay. The woods had been 
on fire, and many of these bodies were burned; some 
with the clothing, and nearly all the flesh consumed! 
The carcass of that cow was touching five dead 
bodies, — which will give an idea of how thick the 
dead were lying. Many of their wounded had per- 
ished in the flames, which had swept over the ground. 

We had witnessed all these horrors, with our own 
eyes, days before, from our lines, and had been help- 
less to do anything for them. Hundreds of wounded 
Federal soldiers lay between the lines, day after day, 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE I05 

and perished for want of help. Several of us, unable 
to bear the sight of their suffering, went out one day 
to carry them food and water, and the Federals fired 
upon us, and wounded one of our men, then we had 
to leave them alone. They could not or would not 
care for their wounded, and would not let us do it. 
It was stated among us that General Lee had sent an 
offer to General Grant to permit him to send, and 
care for his wounded, near our lines; and he refused. 
And then General Lee offered. If Grant would sus- 
pend hostilites for some hours, that we would care 
for his wounded rather than see them suffer, and die, 
before our eyes; Grant refused that proposal too! 

Certain It is, these poor fellows were left to their 
fate and perished, miserably, by wounds and famine, 
and fire. Their many dead, in our front, lay unburled 
until the odor from them was so dreadful that we 
could hardly stay in our works. It may be that Gen- 
eral Grant had this in mind, and was determined that, 
if his live soldiers couldn't drive us out of the works, 
his dead ones should. Well! he had his way of mak- 
ing war! And on account of his inhumanity to his 
wounded, his own men thought as ours did, that his 
way was very brutal ! I heard his own men curse 
him bitterly. They called him "The Butcher" In those 
days. The feeling of his army to him was widely dif- 
ferent from our feeling for our General. 

All those dead soldiers along a line of five miles 
lay rotting on the ground, until we had gone away. 



1 86 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

and the people of the country neighborhood had to 
collect them from the fields, and thickets, and bury 
them, for fear of pestilence. And when one remem- 
bers that from Thursday, the 5th of May, to Thurs- 
day, the 1 2th of May, General Grant had lost 40,000 
in killed and wounded, the dread sight of death and 
suffering we looked upon, can be imagined! The 
thronging lines of unburied dead, — it was a shocking 
and appalling spectacle ! 

But we could not just then, mind the sights we 
saw! We got our beef, all the same! We were the 
first to get to that cow, and we had to take our knives 
and cut through the skin, on the rump, and flay it up, 
and then cut out hunks of the flesh, as best we could, 
and get back to the guns. 

As I got back, carrying my big piece of meat, in 
my hands. Col. H. C. Cabell, commanding our Bat- 
talion, met me. He said, "My dear boy, where on 
earth did you get that meat?" I told him. "Well," 
he said, "I am almost starved; could you give me a 
little piece?" I cut off a chunk as big as my fist, stuck 
it on a sharp stick, held it a few minutes in a fire, close 
by, and handed it up to the Colonel, sitting on his 
horse. He took it off the stick, and ate it ravenously. 
He said it was the best morsel he ever tasted! It 
was scant times when a Colonel of artillery was as 
famished as he was! I cut up the rest of the beef, 
and divided among several of us, and we cooked it on 
a stick, the only cooking utensil we had at hand, and 



SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 1 87 

ate it, with a keenness of enjoyment that terrapin, can- 
vass back duck, and Lynnhaven oysters could not pro- 
voke me to now. My dear! but that hot meat was 
good, to palates accustomed, mostly, to nothing, and 
no salt on that, for about a week. The only meat we 
had now, — when we had any at all. — was fat mess 
pork, and we ate that raw. Hot beef was a delicious 
change ! 

Meanwhile the hours had worn on. We limbered 
up the guns, and moved several miles off, toward the 
right, passing through Spottsylvania Court House. It 
was here we went by to see Cary Eggleston for the 
last time. He died next day. 

We halted in a broom-sedge field, some distance 
beyond the Court House, and parked our guns, along 
with some other artillery, already there. And here we 
stayed a day or two. 

The only thing I particularly recall of the stay 
here, was a trivial circumstance. One of the batter- 
ies we found in this field, belonged to the "Reserve 
Artillery" of which the "zmreserved artillery' had a 
very humble opinion indeed, — just at that time. 

These fellows had not fired a shot, through all 
the late fighting, and their guns were as bright, and 
clean as possible; which ours were not. One day a 
blue bird started to build her nest in the muzzle of 
one of their guns. Some of the sentimental fellows 
took this as an augury. "A sweet gentle little bird 



1 88 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

building her nest in the muzzle of a cannon! What 
could that mean but, that peace was about to be made, 
and these cannon useless?" 

The rest of us scouted this fancy, and took it as a 
rare good joke on that "Reserve Artillery." We said 
"their guns were not of any use anyhow except for 
birds' nests; the birds knew they would be perfectly 
safe to build their nest, and live in those guns. They 
would not be disturbed!" We "chaffed" the officers 
and men of that battery most unmercifully. The 
whole field was on the grin, about that birds' nest. 
The poor fellows were blazing mad, and much mor- 
tified; so disgusted that they took their nice, clean 
guns, and went off to a distant part of the field, to 
get rid of us. We were sorry to lose them ! They 
afforded us a great deal of fun, if they didn't have 
any themselves. That blue bird story got all over our 
part of the Army, and those "Reserve Artillerists" 
were "sorry that they were living." 



CHAPTER IV 

COLD HARBOR AND THE DEFENSE OF RICHMOND 

About the 20th or 21st we started from Spottsyl- 
vania battlefields for others. The Army was on the 
move, and we went along. For a day or two we were 
constantly marching, not knowing where we were go- 
ing, and along roads that I remember very little about. 
At last, about the 2 2d, we crossed the North Anna 
River, and struck the Central Railroad (now "the 
Chesapeake and Ohio") and marched along it, till we 
halted near Hanover Junction. 

Our Army had crossed and stopped on the south 
bank of the North Anna, two or three miles in front 
of the Junction, and was taking the river for a new 
line of defence. Presently the Federal Army came up 
pushing on, for the same point, and found us, already 
ahead, in front, and across their track! Then they 
went at the same old game of trying to break through 
us. They got across the river on our right, and on 
our left. General Lee then threw back both wings 
of his army, clinging with his centre to the river bank. 
Thus check-mating Grant in a way to make his head 

189 



190 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

swim! Grant after crossing the river, on both our 
right and left, suddenly found he had got his army 
cut in two, and he got out of that, just as quickly as 
he could, and gave the North Anna line up as a 
bad job. 

We were moving in one direction, or another, 
about the Junction, for seven or eight days. This 
North Anna business was far more a matter of brains 
between the Generals, than brawn between the men. 
Some sharp fighting, on points right and left, but that 
was all! General Lee simply "horn swaggled" Gen- 
eral Grant, and that was the end of it ! We were out 
one day on the "Doswell Farm," and got under a 
pretty sharp infantry fire, and fired a few shots, then 
General Rodes' skirmishers charged, and drove them 
off, and we saw no more of them. 

Along about the 29th or 30th of May, we got on 
the march again; this time through the "Slashes of 
Hanover." It was an all-night march, and a most 
uncomfortable one. The rain had been pouring, and 
long sections of the road were under water. I think 
we waded for miles, that dark night, through water 
from an inch to a foot deep. And the mud holes! 
after a time our gun wheels went up to the hub, and 
we had to turn to, there in the dark, and prize our 
guns out; nearly lift them bodily out of the mud. I 
suppose we did not go more than five or six miles, in 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND I9I 

that all-night march, and by the time day dawned we 
were as wet, and muddy, as the roads, and felt as 
flat, and were tired to death We halted for an hour 
or two to rest; then pushed on, all day. 

In the late afternoon (this I think was May 31st) 
we took our guns into position, on the far edge of a 
flat, open field. Two hundred yards in front of us, 
in the edge of a wood, was a white frame Church, 
which, some of the fellows, who knew this neighbor- 
hood, told us was "Pole Green Church." They also 
told us that the Pamunkey River was about a mile in 
front of us. We heard artillery in various directions, 
but saw no enemy, and did not know anything of what 
was going on, except where we were. It was quiet 
there; so we went to sleep, and were undisturbed dur- 
ing the night. 

The next morning, we found that infantry^ had 
formed right and left of us, and we were in a line of 
battle stretching across this extensive field. About 
eleven o'clock skirmishers began to appear, in the 
woods, in front of us. They thickened up, and opened 
on us quite a lively fire. We stood this awhile until 
those skirmishers made a rush from the woods, and 
tried to gain the cover of the church building. Some 
of them did, and as this was crowding us a little too 
close, we took to our guns, and so dosed them with 
canister, as they ran out, that they retired, out of 



192 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

range, into the woods. Soon after some infantry be- 
gan to form in the edge of the woods as if they were 
about to charge us. We opened on them. They ad- 
vanced a little, then broke in some confusion, and 
disappeared. The rest of this day, June ist, along 
where we were, there was lively sharp-shooting going 
on, up and down the line, and once a battery fired a 
few shots at us, but no special attack was made. 

In the afternoon, taking advantage of the quiet, 
our negro mess cooks came into the line, to bring us 
something to eat. Each fellow had the cooked meat, 
and bread, for his mess, in a bag, swung over his 
shoulder. They came on across the field until within 
a hundred yards of the line, when a shell struck, in 
the field, not far from them. The darkies scattered, 
like a covey of birds! Some ran one way, and some 
another. Some ran back to the rear, and a few ran 
on to us. Our cook, Ephraim, came tearing on with 
long leaps, and tumbled over among us crying out, 
"De Lord have mercy upon us." "Ephraim," we 
said, "what is the matter? what did you run for?" 
All in a tremble, he thrust out the bag towards us, 
and exclaimed, "Here, Marse George, take your vit- 
uals, and let me git away from here. De Lord for- 
give me for being such a fool as to come to sich a 
place as dis anyhow." 

"But, Ephraim," we said, "there was no danger! 
That shell didn't hit anywhere near you." "De ain't 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 1 93 

no use In telling me datl Don't nobody know whar 
dem things goin' ! Sound to me like it was bout to 
hit me side my head, and bust my brains out, every 
minit; and if it had a hit me, dem other cooks would 
all a run away, and left me lying out dar, like a poor 
creeter." "But, my dear Ephralm," we said, "it mor- 
tifies us to see the 'Howitzer' cooks running so, with 
all the men looking on." "Don't keer who looking! 
When dem things come any whar bout me, I bleeged 
to run. Dis ain't no place for cooks, nohow. Here 
gentlemen! take your rations; I got to get away from 
here!" We emptied the bag, he threw it over his 
back, and streaked with it to the rear. 

Another night In line here ! Next morning, June 
2d, orders came to move. We got on a road running 
along, just back of our position, and marched off to- 
ward the right. The road ran, for some distance, 
nearly parallel to our lines, and then bore away toward 
the rear. For a time we met, or passed bodies of 
troops and wagon teams on the roadside, soldiers sin- 
gle, or in groups. Further on, all these reminders 
of the presence of the Army were left behind, and 
we found ourselves marching on quiet lonely country 
roads, through woods and fields of a peaceful rural 
landscape. We had not the least idea where we were 
going; or what we were going to do, or see when we 
got there. But we had got out of the habit of caring 
for that. 



194 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

The Last ^^ was a Calm, sweet June evening ! quiet country 

How'hzer^"'^ farms, and homes lay all about us. The whole scene 
Captain spoke of peacc. It was such a restful change to us 

from the din and smoke and crowd we had been in 
the midst of so long. We gave ourselves up to the 
influences of the hour, and a very pleasant evening 
we cannoneers had strolling along, in front of the col- 
umn of guns, and talking together. 

Captain McCarthy was on foot, in the midst of 
us, as we marched. I remember being particularly 
struck with what a stalwart, martial figure he was, as 
he strode along that road. He was much more silent, 
and quiet than usual! He was generally so bright and 
cheerful, that this was noticed, and remarked on by 
several of us. 

It was afterwards, that perhaps a presentiment 
was given him that this was his last march, with the 
battery, he had fought so often, and loved so much; 
and this saddened, and softened his usually bold, 
soldierly spirit, and bearing. I walked and talked 
with him a good deal that afternoon, and certainly 
I was struck by a quietness of manner, and a gentle- 
ness of speech, not at all usual with him. But we did 
not know what it meant then! So we cheerily swung 
along that silent road, to meet what was coming to 
him, and to us, in the unseen way ahead. 

About five o'clock we pulled out of the road we 
had been travelling, and followed a narrow farm road, 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 195 

across a wide, open field, toward a farmhouse, on its 
farther edge. Beyond the house was a large pine 
wood, which stopped all view in that direction. As 
we passed across that field, we saw some other artil- 
lery, coming from another direction, and converging 
with us upon that farmhouse. When we drew close 
together, we discovered that these fellows were the 
Second and Third Companies of the "Richmond 
Howitzers." Our Company, the First, had been sep- 
arated from them at the beginning of the war, and 
they had never met, before now. A little while after, 
at this spot, the three batteries, "First," "Second" and 
"Third Richmond Howitzers" went into battle side 
by side, for the first, and only time, during the war. 
There was great interest felt by the boys that we 
should go into one fight together; but before we went 
in, the Battalion was broken up again, and scattered, 
to different parts of the line. 

When we got near this farmhouse, all was quiet ! 
We had not seen, or heard of any enemy for many 
hours, and we did not know where anybody was; didn't 
even know "where we were at" ourselves. The farm 
road ran past the house, round the barn and on toward 
that pine woods behind the house. 

We halted just by the house, and got some water, 
at the well, and stood around and wondered what we 
were here for. There were some cherry trees, with 
ripe cherries on them, and up them the boys swarmed. 



196 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Leigh Robinson gallantly leading the way, to enjoy 
the fruit. 

We were thus engaged, when the deep quiet of this 
rural scene was suddenly, and rudely broken ! Over 
beyond that wood just by us, there burst out a terrific 
roar of musketry! It was like a clap of thunder out 
of a clear sky! We did not know any troops were 
near us, and had no idea that the enemy was in ten 
miles of us. 

But there right through those pines the musketry 
was rolling, and cracking now 1 A few cannon shots 
joined in, and the Confederate "yell" rose up out of 
the thunder of battle. And the bullets began to sing 
around us. The cherry trees were quickly deserted 
by all, but Leigh Robinson. He stayed up there with 
balls whizzing close to him, and calmly picked and ate 
cherries, — as if these were humming birds sporting 
about him, — until he had enough, or more likely, the 
cherries gave out. Not knowing who was fighting 
beyond the woods, or what might come of it, we got 
the guns into battery, facing the woods, to be ready 
for what might be. 

In a few minutes we saw Colonel Goggin, of Ker- 
shaw's staff, dash out of the woods, and gallop to- 
ward us. He told us that it was Kershaw's Division 
over there. They had been attacked by heavy lines 
of the enemy; that our line was broken, and captured 
at one point, and that Kershaw wanted some guns. 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 1 97 

just as quick as they could get to him. Our two "Na- 
poleons" were ordered in. Goggin said " for heaven's 
sake come at double quick;" the need was very urgent. 
We cannoneers of the Left Section had the guns lim- 
bered up, and into the woods, in about a minute; we, 
double-quicking alongside. We went by a narrow 
wood road, which entering the woods straight ahead 
of us, went obliquely to the left down a deep ravine, 
crossed a little stream, and up the hill, into the open 
field beyond. 

Passing through that pine wood was a mean job! 
The Minie balls were slapping the pines all about 
us, with that venomous sound, with which a Minie 
crashes Into green pine wood. It is a mean piece of 
work anyhow, to go from the rear up to a fighting 
line ! But, away we went, excited and eager to get 
through, and see what was going on. The road, cut 
through the steep banks down to the stream, was so 
very narrow that it barely admitted our wheels, and 
when they went farther down the cut, our hubs stuck 
in the bank, on both sides, and the gun was held fast. 
From this point the road ran straight up to the edge 
of the wood. We could see men running about, and 
yelling, and shooting in the open ground. We could 
not tell whether they were our men or the enemy, and 
the fear seized us that the enemy might be pressing our 
people back, and would catch us, helpless and useless, 
in this ridiculous fix. 



198 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Gracious! how the driver did whip, and spur! and 
how the cannoneers did strain, and tug at those wheels! 
Captain McCarthy jumped off his horse, and put his 
powerful strength to the wheel. The men from the 
other guns joined us, and, at last, when we were nearly 
wild with excitement, we gave one tremendous jerk, 
all together, and lifted the whole thing bodily out of 
that rut, and over the bank. The horses, as excited 
now, as we were, snatched the gun over the bank, 
across the stream, nearly upsetting it, and then went 
tearing, at a full gallop, up the hill; we running at 
top speed to keep up. The third gun following. At 
this pace, we dashed into the open field, and were 
upon the battle ground. We ran the guns into the 
line of battle, along a slight work Kershaw's men 
had hurriedly thrown up, just to the left of the part 
of the line which the Federals had taken, and were 
still holding. We pushed up, until we got an enfilade 
fire upon their lines. A few case-shots screaming 
down their line sent them flying out of that, and our 
line was restored. 

The Colonel of one of their regiments, captured 
by our men, said that his regiment was lying down 
behind our captured hne, and one of our shells cut 
down a large pine tree and threw it on his line, and 
about finished up what was left of his regiment. The 
shell burst just as it struck the tree, and the shell frag- 
ments, and falling tree together, killed twelve or fif- 
teen men, and wounded a number of others. 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 1 99 

The fighting was dying down now, and soon ceased. 
Our line restored, the enemy made no further effort 
to take it. The rest of the time, till dark, was taken 
up with sharp-shooting, and artillery fire. A farm- 
house and outbuildings and barn stood right behind 
our position, and, I remember, the barn swallows in 
large numbers were skimming and twittering all 
around, through the sweet, bright air, while shells 
and balls were singing a very different sort of song. 
I never saw that sight during the war but this once, — 
birds flying about in the midst of a battle. But here, 
those dear little swallows circled round, and round 
that barn, and the adjoining field, for hours, while the 
air was full of flying missiles. They did not seem to 
mind it. Perhaps they wondered what on earth was 
going on. It was a curious scene ! 

During the night we made some little addition to 
the slight earth work, which the infantry had thrown 
up, in front of our two guns. Infantry began to pile 
into the line on both sides of our guns; we learned 
that this was the Twentieth South Carolina Regiment, 
Colonel Keitt, who had been killed, in a fight the Regi- 
ment had been in, that afternoon. 

This regiment, at this time when some Brigades 
in the Army of Northern Virginia had not more than 
one thousand or twelve hundred men, came among us 
with seventeen hundred men ready for duty. The 
regiment had been stationed at Fort Sumter; had 



200 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

seen nothing of war except the siege of a Fort, and 
their idea of the chief duty of a soldier was, — to get 
as much earth between him and the enemy as possible. 
When they came into line this night, and saw this 
slight bank of dirt, — about two feet thick, and three 
feet high, — and learned that we expected, certainly, 
to fight behind it in the morning, they were perfectly 
aghast! They pitched in, and began to "throw dirt." 
They kept it up all night, and by morning had a wall 
of earth in front of them, in many places eight feet 
high, and six to seven feet thick. 

How much higher, and thicker they would have 
got it, if the enemy had not interrupted them, gracious 
only knows ! Of course they couldn't begin to shoot 
over it, except at the sky; perhaps they thought any- 
thing blue would do to shoot at and the sky was blue. 
But it was a fact, that when the enemy advanced next 
morning, this big regiment was positively "Hors du 
Combat." 

It is true, that when we woke up at daylight, and 
found what they had done, we jeered, and laughed at 
them, and showed them the impossibility of fighting 
from behind that wall, until some of them got 
ashamed, and began to shovel down the top, a little. 
Captain McCarthy sent to let General Kershaw know 
the absurd situation we were in, — supported by infan- 
try that could not fire a shot, and warning him, that 
if the enemy charged, they would certainly take the 
line, unless our two guns alone could hold it. Gen- 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 201 

eral Kershaw sent orders to them "to shovel that thing 
down to a proper height," but they didn't have time 
to do it. When the fight began some of them had cut 
out a shelf on the inside of the bank, and some of 
them had gotten boxes and logs and a number stood 
up on them, and did some shooting, and behaved gal- 
lantly; but many of them seeming to think that a man 
should be "rewarded according to his works" laid 
closely down behind that wall, and never stirred. 

The next night General Lee took them out of the 
lines, and gave them picks, and shovels, and made a 
"sapping and mining corps" of them, — the military 
service they were most fitted for, and they were re- 
warded according to their works. 

While these beavers were gallantly wielding the 
pick and shovel, we, satisfied with our little bank of 
dirt, were getting ready for next day's work, by a good 
sound sleep. One of our boys did have misgiving 
about the strength of our defences. He went in the 
night, and woke up Sergeant Moncure and said, "Mon- 
key, don't you think these works are very thin?" "Yes, 
Tom, they are," he replied. "You just get a spade, 
and go and make them just as thick as you think they 
ought to be; Good night!" He resumed his slumbers, 
and Tom, not an overly energetic person, walked 
away grumbling that " the work was too thin, but he 
would be derned if he was going out there, in the dark 
to work on them, all by himself," which he didn't. 



202 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Somehow when we lay down this night we had 
gotten the impression that things were going to be 
rough, in the morning. They were ! 

Just as the day dawn was struggling through the 
clouds, we were roused by the sound of several guns, 
fired in quick succession. We were on our feet in- 
stantly, and saw that all was ready for action. Shells 
came howling at us from batteries that we could dis- 
cern in the dim light. We could see the light of their 
burning fuses, as they started out of their guns, and 
could trace their flight toward us by that. Some of 
them would strike the ground in front, and ricochet 
over us ; some would crash into our work, with a ter- 
rific thud, and some went screaming over our heads, — 
very close, too, and went on to the rear to look after 
our Right Section guns, which were still by that farm- 
house, where we had left them, the evening before. 
They knocked down several of the shelter tents our 
boys were sleeping under, and several of our fellows, 
there, had the narrowest kind of an escape. One shell 
"caromed" over three of the men, who were sleep- 
ing side by side, touching the very blanket that was 
over them. The Right Section boys needed no reveille 
that morning to get them out ! They tumbled up with 
great promptness and moved round out of the line of 
fire. Fortunately none of them were actually hurt, 
just here. One fellow was sleeping with several can- 
teens of water hanging right over his head. A bullet 
went through them. He was nearly drowned! 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 203 

In our front, this artillery fire kept up for a while, The 
then it stopped! The next moment, there was an pjjjg^'^** 
awful rush ! From every quarter their infantry came Minutes of 
pouring on over the fields, and through the woods, *^^ ^^^ 
yelling and firing, and coming at a run. Their col- 
umns seemed unending ! Enough people to sweep our 
thin lines from the face of the earth! Up and down 
our battle line, the fierce musketry broke out. To 
right and left it ran, crashing and rolling like the 
sound of a heavy hail on a tin roof, magnified a thou- 
sand times, with the cannon pealing out in the midst 
of it like claps of thunder. Our line, far as the eye 
could reach, was ablaze with fire; and into that furious 
storm of death, the blue columns were swiftly urging 
their way. 

Straight in our front one mass was advancing on 
us and we were hurling case - shot through their 
ranks, — when, suddenly ! glancing to the right, we saw 
another column, which had rushed out of the woods 
on our right front, by the flank, almost upon us, not 
forty-five yards outside our line. Instantly we turned 
our guns upon them with double canister! Two or 
three shots doubled up the head of that column. It 
resolved itself into a formless crowd, that still stood 
stubbornly there, but could not get one step farther. 
And then, for three or four minutes, at short pistol 
range, the infantry and our Napoleon guns tore them 
to pieces. It was deadly, and bloody work! They 
were a helpless mob, now; a swarming multitude of 



204 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

confused men! They were falling by scores, hun- 
dreds I The mass was simply melting away under the 
fury of our fire. Then, they broke in panic, and head- 
long rout! 

Many fearing to retreat under that deadly fire, 
dropped down behind the stumps near our line, and 
when the others had gone, we ordered them to come 
in. Several hundred prisoners were captured in this 
way. To show what our works were, — I saw one tall 
fellow jump up from behind a stump, run to our work, 
and with "a hop, skip, and a jump," he leaped entirely 
over it, and landed inside our hne. And a foolish 
looking fellow he was, when he picked himself up ! 

Just as the enemy broke, Ben Lambert, "No. i" 
at "4th" gun, was severely wounded, in the right arm, 
just as he raised it to swab his gun. One of the boys 
took his place, and the fire kept on. 

The great assault was over and had failed! Only 
ten or fifteen minutes was its fury raging! In that 
ten minutes, thirteen thousand Federal soldiers lay 
stricken, with death, or wounds. In those few mo- 
ments. Grant lost nearly as many men as the whole 
British Army lost in the entire battle of Waterloo. 

Just to our right the enemy got over our works, 
and the guns right and left of the break were turned 
on them. We heard a "yell" behind us, and round 
a piece of pines came Eppa Hunton's Brigade of Vir- 
ginians, at a run; General Eppa on horse-back lead- 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 205 

ing them in, at a gallop. The Virginians delivered 
their volley at the Federals inside our lines, then 
sprang on them like tigerr. Next minute the few, left 
of them, were flying back over the works. 

In the thick of the fight, Barksdale's Mississippi 
Brigade, now commanded by General Humphreys, to 
which our Battery had been attached, being unengaged 
just at that time, heard that the infantry supporting 
us was not effective, and that the "Howitzers" were 
In danger of being run over. They requested permis- 
sion to come to our help, and two Regiments came 
tearing down the lines to our position, manned the 
line by us, and went to work. What work these splen- 
did fellows could do in a fight! We had been very 
uneasy about our supports, and were delighted to see 
the Misslsslppians, especially, as they had voluntarily 
come to our help, in such a handsome manner. 

The spectacle In front of our line was simply sick- 
ening/ The horrible heaps of dead lay so ghastly, and 
the wounded were so thickly strewn all over the field. 
To right, and to left, out In front, along our line, as 
far as we could see, this dreadful array of the dead 
and wounded stretched! It was pitiful to see the 
wounded writhing, and to hear their cries of agony. 
And here again, as at Spottsylvania, these wounded 
were left between the lines, to perish miserably, of 
hunger and thirst, and mortifying wounds. 

When, a few days after, Grant sent to look after 
them they were nearly all dead. What they must have 



2o6 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Federal Suffered before death came! But none of their own 

Troops people seemed to care, and no effort was made to help 

Refuse to Be ^, ^ , , • , , , , t ^ 

Slaughtered them, — when they might have been saved. 1 wonder 
who will have to answer for the unnecessary waste 
of life and suffering in the "Army of the Potomac?" 
For the untold agony and death that need never have 
been! It was awful! We used to think it was brutal! 
And the Federal soldiers thought so too ! 

Some hours after this assault we saw the enemy 
massing for another. Their columns advanced a 
little way, and then stopped. We could see there 
was some "hitch," and sent a few shells over there, 
just to encourage any little reluctance they might have 
about coming on. These lines stood still, and came no 
further. 

We learned, afterwards, that perfectly demoral- 
ized, and disheartened by the bloody repulse of the 
morning, the Federal troops, when ordered by Gen- 
eral Grant to storm our line again, mutinied in line 
of battle, and in the face of the enemy and refused to 
go forward. I witnessed that performance, but did 
not understand at the time, just what was going on. 
The grave meaning of it was, that the enemy's sold- 
iers had distinctly quailed before our lines and declared 
their utter inability to take them. And this was the 
verdict — at the end — of General Grant's Army upon 
General Grant's campaign! Their heads were more 
level than their General's. They were tired of being 
slaughtered for nothing! 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 207 

The moment the morning assault was over, the 
Federal artillery opened furiously, all along the line, 
and all day long, we were under a constant fire of 
cannon, and sharp-shooters. 

Fifty yards behind our guns was a farmhouse, out- 
buildings, and yard full of trees. Shells aimed at us, 
rained into those premises all day. The house was 
riddled like a sieve, the trees were cut down, and the 
outbuildings, barn, stables, sheds, etc., were reduced 
to a heap of kindling wood. 

A pig was in a pen, in the yard! Everything else 
on the place had been hit, and we watched with interest 
the fate of that pig. He escaped all day! Just after 
dark, a shell skimmed just over our gun, went scream- 
ing back into that yard, burst, — and — we heard the 
pig squeal. Some of the men, at once, started for 
the yard, and came back with the pig. Said "he was 
mortally wounded, and they were going to carry him 
to the hospital." I fear he did not survive to get 
there! We disposed of his remains in the usual way. 

About noon we heard that our Right Section had 
been ordered into position, on the lines, some distance 
to our right, and that John Moseley, No, 8 at ist 
gun, while with his caisson, back of the lines, had been 
killed. A stray bullet had pierced his brain. No one 
was with him at the time. He was found dead, In 
the woods. 



208 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

Dr. Carter The sharp-shooters swept all the ground about us, 

"Apologizes making it dangerous for any man to expose himself 
Shot" an instant. Dr. Carter took some canteens, and his 

cup, and went round under the hill behind us, to bring 
some water. With filled canteens, and tin cup, filled 
to the brim, carried in his right hand, he recklessly 
came back across the field, in rear of the line. Just 
before he got to us, a bullet struck his right thumb, 
and shattered it. He did not drop the cup or spill 
the water! He came right on, as if nothing had hap- 
pened, offered us a drink of water out of the cup, and 
then courteously apologized to the captain for getting 
shot; who accepted his apology, and sent him off to 
the hospital, to have his thumb amputated; which he 
did, and was back at his post, the first moment his 
wound permitted. When we condoled with him for 
the loss of his thumb, he said '^He didn't care anything 
about the thumb; he could roll cigarettes just as well 
with the stump, as he ever could with the whole thumb. 
That seemed about all the use he had for his thumb, — 
to roll cigarettes. He was an artist at that! 

In the afternoon three or four of us were stand- 
ing in a group talking when one of the numberless 
shells that were howling by all day long, burst in our 
very faces. I distinctly felt the heat of the explosion 
on my skin, and grains of powder out of the bursting 
shell struck our faces, and drew blood. The concus- 
sion was terrific! It was a pretty "close call" to all 
three of us ! 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 209 

The Stream of shells fired at our guns gradually 
cut away the top of our work, until it was so low that 
it did not sufficiently protect our gun. We feared that 
some of the shells would strike our gun, and disable 
it. To avert this, for many hours that day, from time 
to time, we had to take turns, and, with shovels, throw 
sand from the inside on the top of the work. In this 
way we managed to keep our defences up, but it was 
weary work, and we grew very tired. Still, there was 
nothing for it, but to keep on, and we kept on ! 

About six o'clock, there fell the saddest loss, to Death of 
the battery, that it had yet been called to bear. Cap- McCaiSi 
tain McCarthy stood up at the work to watch what 
was going on in front. One moment, I saw him, 
standing there; — the next instant, I heard a sharp 
crash, the familiar sound of a bullet striking, and Mc- 
Carthy was lying, flat on his back, and motionless. We 
jumped to his side! Nothing to be done! A long 
bullet from a "globe sight" rifle had struck him, two 
inches over his right eye, and crashed straight through 
his brain. He lay without motion two or three min- 
utes, then his chest rose, and fell, gently, onc^ or twice, 
and he was still, in death. 

And there, on that red field of war, with shells, and 
bullets whistling all about, over his dead face, dropped 
the tears of brave men, who loved him well, and had 
fought with and followed him long ! We had seen his 
superb courage in battle; his patient bearing of hard- 
ship, his unfaltering devotion to duty always; his kind, 



210 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

cordial comradeship! We knew him to be a soldier, 
every inch, and a patriot to his heart's core! 

We knew, and said, that among all her sons, Vir- 
ginia had no braver son, than this one, who had died 
for her. Sadly we lamented — "What shall we do, in 
battle, and in camp, and on march, his form and face 
missing from among us?" There was not a sadder 
group of hearts along that blood-drenched line that 
evening, than ours, who bowed deeply sorrowing over 
the form of our dead captain. We took his body in 
our arms, and bore it to where we could place it in an 
ambulance. 

It was sent to his home, and family, in Richmond, 
and buried in "Shockoe Cemetery." And now, — after 
thirty-two years have passed, we, the old "Howitzers," 
still carry the name of "Ned McCarthy" in our hearts! 
We keep his memory green; we think of him, and 
rank him as a typical Confederate Soldier. One who 
by his splendid courage and devotion shed luster upon 
the name. 

His stalwart form has gone to dust. The light of 
his bright, brave face has long gone from our eyes; 
the soul-stirring war time — when we were with him — 
has long passed away. The changes and chances of 
this mortal life have brought many experiences to us 
who survived him. Our feet have wandered far, into 
many paths. We have toiled, and thought, and suf- 
fered, and enjoyed much, in the long years, since we. 
last looked upon his form dead on the red field of 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 211 

"Cold Harbor." "The strong hours have conquered 
us" in many things. But — the noble memory of this 
man! as a patriot and a hero! 

Ah! that lives in our hearts! The hearts of his 
comrades who, with their own eyes, saw him live and 
bear, and fight and die — for Virginia — and the South. 

The battle of Cold Harbor ended Grant's direct 
advance on Richmond. He drew off in confessed 
defeat and inability to go on — afterwards, he ad- 
vanced by way of Petersburg. 

The operations on that line resolved themselves 
into a siege. That siege lasted through the fall and 
winter and early spring of ^6^^ with many attempts to 
break our lines, which always failed. 

On the second day of April, 1865, according to 
General Lee's own statement to General Meade, just 
after the surrender, the Army of Northern Virginia 
stood, with 27,000 men, holding a line thirty-two miles 
long; facing an army of 150,000 men. On that day 
our line was broken, and the retreat began. 

Under the circumstances, the disentanglement of 
our army from that long line, and getting it on the 
march, with the enemy's powerful army close in their 
front, was a supreme display of, at once, the consum- 
mate generalship of General Lee, and the unshakable 
morale of the Southern troops. 

The retreat continued for one week; we started 
from Petersburg Sunday, April 2, and reached Appo- 
mattox, Saturday, April 8th. On that day, after the 



212 FROM THE RAPIDAN TO RICHMOND 

hunger, exhaustion, and losses in the many fights along 
the way, the Army stood at Appomattox, ninety miles 
from Petersburg, with 8,000 men with arms in their 
hands; and they were as "game" as ever. On that 
morning of April 9th, when General Gordon surren- 
dered his little force of 1,300 men, he had to sur- 
render 1,700 Federal soldiers, and fourteen pieces of 
artillery, which he had just captured from the enemy, 
while driving back their encircling line more than 
a mile. 

Then General Lee, unwilling for useless sacrifice, 
surrendered the army, because it was "compelled to 
yield to overwhelming numbers and resources" — and 
that Army of Northern Virginia, when it was surren- 
dered, had behind it this remarkable, and proud 
record, that, in the many battles it fought during the 
war, it was never once driven from the field of battle ; 
and it was as defiant, and ready to fight at Appomattox 
as it was at Manassas, the first battle four years 
before. 

As we turn from that closing scene, let us take a 
parting glance at the facts which, duly considered, 
enable us to form a true estimate of the fight the South 
made in that struggle of the Civil War, 

The history of that war may be briefly, but accu- 
rately comprehended in this short statement. During 
the four years, '61 to '65, the North put into the field 
two million, eight hundred thousand (2,800,000) men. 
They were well armed, well equipped, and well fed — 
also, it had a Navy. 



COLD HARBOR AND RICHMOND 213 

During those four years, the South put into the 
field less than six hundred thousand (600,000) men. 
They were poorly armed, poorly equipped, and poorly 
fed — much of the time, very poorly indeed! And it 
had no Navy. 

It took those 2,800,000 men, with the Navy, four 
years to overcome those 600,000 men. In doing so 
they lost the lives of one million (1,000,000) men — 
nearly double the whole number of men the (South put 
into the field. 

What these facts mean, the world will judge — the 
world has judged! And the world has off its hat to 
the race who made that heroic fight! 




D0DE3E7E15A 



